


Divided Volume 1: The Outer Walls

by TheNoca



Series: Divided [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Action, Action & Romance, Action/Adventure, Betrayal, Class Differences, Class Issues, Corruption, Drama & Romance, Dystopia, F/M, Family, Family Drama, Family Feels, Family Issues, Government Conspiracy, Government Experimentation, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Cheating, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Implied/Referenced Torture, Mutants, Pandemics, Post-Apocalypse, Psychological Drama, Psychological Torture, Serious, Tragedy/Comedy, Tragic Romance, Underage Drinking, Underage Drug Use, Underage Smoking, Virus, Zombies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-05 08:55:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 14
Words: 30,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25468129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheNoca/pseuds/TheNoca
Summary: It’s a time of rebuild. A time for humans to rebuild what was once lost after a massive virus wiped half the population in the world. In the US, places are split into different sanctuaries. Human life is almost normal with one particular catch.Normal travelling in between sanctuaries are done by large shuttle busses. These shuttle busses are the only way to travel around to and from different sanctuaries. Travelling this is normal for people living in mid-low end sanctuaries since most of the good places to shop and hangout are in the high-end sanctuaries.Our particular man lives in a low-end sanctuary with his entire family. This man is 20 year old, Curtis Page. His family had always lived at the bottom and it didn’t seem like the most recent pandemic was going to help. He works multiple jobs a day just so he can make enough to provide for himself, his family, and at times, leisure.One day he’s forced to partake in a safety protocol where he has to stick with one other person. This is where his story begins. It’s where he meets the love of his life and it’s where his life is about to be flipped upside down.
Relationships: Original Character(s)/Original Character(s), Original Female Character/Original Male Character
Series: Divided [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1844770
Kudos: 2





	1. Prologue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew. This is a looooong Prologue. I spent the last week and a half writing up my story bible and updating as I wrote the current chapters I've written. So far, I have 3 chapters written with a 4th one in the works as I type this note. With no doubt is this my most worked on story since Z-World (which I took down, but it will be back up in the future). This is a story that I can get behind due to how much it is inspired by. This genre is one of my favorite to either read or attempt to write for. This will also be a lengthy series since most chapters are differing around 1500-2500 words with mid-point chapters or climax chapters probably being as long as this prologue. Anyway, I'll stop talking and allow all of you to continue on. I'll see all of you in the end note!

"Why am I on this bus?" A young man sat on a shuttle bus with his eyes closed. He tilted his head up while contemplating why he was on the bus, "I should be working right now." He opened his eyes and checked his bag. Inside were multiple items. A gun, 2 bottles of water, a few protein bars, and some rope.

He shook his head and zipped his bag up again. He took out another small sack, and inside was a handful of cash. Although, it wasn't cash that most people were accustomed to. It was a new form of currency in their new world called: Zusar. A currency used worldwide.

He tucked the sack away and sighed, "Might as well catch some shut eye until I get to the mid-end..." The man leaned back and closed his eye again.

This man was Curtis Page. A 20 year old man from a low-end sanctuary. Even if he's from a low-end area, he looked clean with a neatly kept ponytail, and a well-kept beard. His clothes weren't tattered at all and he looked like he had belonged in a high-end sanctuary.

Well, he only looks like this when he leaves his low-end sanctuary. It gives people a different vibe when they see him walk onto the bus from the low-end sanctuary, but he quickly explains that he just likes to look nice when he leaves his home. However, he doesn't have a clue as to what to do when he leaves his home.

All he does is arrive in the high-end sanctuary and doesn't do anything. He just sits at the park and watch other people. He never spends money unless he needs to. He never talks to anyone. He just keeps to himself. He's what people would call: A Loner.

The bus stopped at one of the stops and a woman wearing a lab coat accompanied by two armed soldiers. She looked at everyone and nodded.

"We are issuing a temporary protocol. There has been news of another strand of the virus that ha previously plagued us still resides here." This caused the crowd on the bus to grow rowdy as she continued, "However, this strand of the virus mutates a person once its process of infection is over. Right now, we are ordering all of you to step off the bus until further notice."

"What?" Curtis mouthed to himself, "This is ridiculous." Curtis waited for his seat-mate to get up and when he did, another person walked into him, "Sorry." Curtis turned to the person and held his hand out, "I wasn't a watching before I stepped out."

"No." The person, a woman around his age, responded, "I was just rushing out."

Curtis helped the woman up and the two stared at one another. It as only until a man from behind them barked at them for holding everyone else up.

They walked off the bus and waited around while multiple armed soldiers surrounded them. Curtis and the woman stood next to each other but they didn't even speak or acknowledge one another. Curtis noticed one of the soldiers walking around with a metal detector and grew worried.

The woman noticed this and asked, "Is there something wrong?"

"I uh..." Before Curtis could say anything, a soldier was already behind them scanning his bag. The metal detector went off making Curtis sigh.

"Sir, hand me your bag for inspection." Curtis begrudgingly handed his bag to the soldier and they searched through it and quickly found his gun, "Guns are prohibited unless you have a license. Do you have any qualifications for this?"

"I don't..."

"Then I must ask that you come with me."

"Wait," the woman interrupted, "he's with me."

"I didn't know that he was with you Ms. Hardin." The soldier looked at Curtis and nodded, "Then carry on. I will still have to confiscate your firearm."

"That's fine." Curtis responded. The soldier nodded and handed back his bag before walking off. Curtis looked at the woman and asked, "Why'd you bail me out?"

"You don't seem like the type of person who would have ill-intent." She answered. She turned to him and held her hand out, "My name is Jessica Hardin. You might know me as Brian Hardin's Wife."

"Didn't think I'd meet the wife of Brian Hardin here. I'm Curtis Page. What are you doing here?"

"My family still lives in the mid-end sanctuary. I had finished visiting earlier, but you know that shuttle busses don't turn around."

"When was the next bus going back to the high-end?"

"Tomorrow. I didn't have that type of time to stay here for that long."

"I see." Curtis crossed his arms and sighed, "Damn it."

"What?"

"That gun cost me a fortune. I hate that I lost it just like that."

"So you are from the low-end."

"Didn't you hear me when I announced it when I stepped on the bus?"

"I did. I just didn't believe it. You're just so well kept. It's hard to believe you're actually from there, Mr. Page."

"Just Curtis is fine and I get that a lot." Curtis sighed and shook his head, "It'll be hard to make up the money for losing that gun."

"Do you not make a lot of money?"

"Well," Curtis scratched the back of his head and took out the sack of his money out again, "I do, but it's mostly for my family."

"Your family?"

"I'm sorry to interrupt Ms. Hardin," a soldier interrupted, "but the scientist has informed that travelling in between sanctuaries must be done with another person."

"That is fine. I will allow Curtis here to be that person."

"If that is what you wish ma'am." The soldier saluted before leaving them alone.

"Why me?" Curtis questioned.

"Well, apart from that I already informed them that you were with me. I take it that you don't have anyone accompanying you."

"I mean..."

"I take it that you're alone since you boarded the shuttle bus alone."

"Can you be anymore blunt?" Curtis groaned.

"I-I'm sorry." Jessica quickly apologized, "I tend to blurt out the harsh truths without thinking twice about it."

"Harsh would be an understatement." Curtis sighed and looked at Jessica, "But I guess I have no other choice. The last thing I want is for them to be on my ass for your lies."

After boarding the bus once again, the two didn't speak to one another again. Jessica sat beside him on her phone while Curtis leaned his head back with his eyes closed.

On her phone, Jessica groaned and angrily placed her phone back in her purse. This caught the attention of Curtis and he brought his head back.

"Something wrong?"

"It's my security detail." She answered, "They're always on me whenever I go to the mid-end. It's annoying."

"What did you tell them?"

"That I have someone protecting me."

"Protecting you?" Curtis scoffed, "I don't exactly have anything to protect you with anymore."

"It's just an excuse to get them off my back." Jessica leaned on her arm and sighed, "I just wish I could just move around as I please."

"Why don't you?"

"I'm..." Before she could say any further, she stopped herself, "I can't say. Private matters."

"Don't worry. It's not my place to intrude." Curtis took one good look at Jessica and smiled, "Brian is one helluva lucky guy though."

"Why is that?"

"To have a woman as young and beautiful as you as his wife is awesome." Jessica was shocked at how nonchalant Curtis was about this statement. He even added to it by saying, "I'd be the luckiest guy in the world to have a woman like you."

"C-Curtis..."

"Sorry. I guess I don't have a filter either." Curtis leaned back and crossed his arms, "I guess we're kinda the same."

"The same?"

"People who talk like this usually don't have a social life." Curtis explained, "Because they don't have much interaction with others, they tend to say what's on their mind regardless of how people feel."

"You don't have many friends?"

"My family raised to only make friends with people I can trust. They didn't tell me who to trust. I'm just a distrustful person."

"Do you trust me?"

"It's too early to say. I am comfortable around you if that's a start."

"It is."

The bus stopped at high-end station and the bus started to unboard.

"Well," Curtis started, "let's get going Ms. Hardin."

"Please. Just call me Jessica."

"If you want."

The two walked around the high-end before Curtis stopped in front of the park.

"This is where we split." Curtis started making Jessica quickly turn around, "We only needed to be with each other for the bus ride. You're close to your home, so I won't be needed."

"W-Wait." Jessica grabbed Curtis by his jacket and tugged on it, "Where will you go?"

"I usually just spend the day at the park. I don't want to spend any money."

"Would you mind if I helped you indulge for the day?"

"Indulge? Indulge in what?"

"The life of the high-end civilian."

"I don't know."

"Come on." Jessica grabbed Curtis's hand and dragged him through the streets all while soldiers around the area watched the two.

Jessica brought Curtis to multiple stores. From clothing, sporting goods, and electronic stores. They spent hours together until sunset hit.

"Ah man." Curtis groaned and scratched his head.

"What wrong Curtis?"

"Look, I enjoyed the time we had here today, but I need to get back home for dinner or at least before midnight. My mother and father can't take care of everything on their own."

"But you can't use the shuttle busses unless you have someone with you."

"I know." Curtis grasped his head in frustration and kicked a nearby can, "Shit..."

"I'll go with you."

"What?"

"Yes. I'd like to accompany you."

"How would you get back?"

"I can just spend the night."

"No. That's suicide for me." Curtis walked off while saying, "If they catch me with you in my household, I'll be executed on the spot. I'm not taking any risks."

"What if I disguise myself?"

Curtis looked at Jessica and asked, "You're really adamant about coming with me, aren't you?"

"Yes. To be honest with you, I hate it here. Living this high life isn't for me."

"And living at the bottom is any better?"

"I honestly wish to be back in the mid-end with my family, but I'm bound by marriage to remain here."

"I see..."

"Just give me this chance." Knowing that convincing her would be impossible, he agreed with a simple nod, "Okay. Just give me a moment." Jessica quickly disappeared and as fast as she did, she appeared again dressed as an older woman.

"Uh..."

"I always have disguises so I can sneak around. Like I said, my security detail is tight and never get off my back about stuff."

"I understand." Curtis raised his hands up and chuckled, "Let's go."

And with that, they walked towards the shuttle busses. The soldiers standing guard stopped them and looked at the two.

"I'm just taking my mute grandmother back with me to the low-end." Curtis quickly explained, "It was her birthday today."

The soldier nodded and said, "Carry on then. Be safe and take care of your grandmother."

"No problem sir." Curtis sighed in relief and nodded, "I can't believe that worked..."

"The soldiers are good people. They're just forced to work pointless protocols."

The two boarded the bus and seated themselves in the back. There were only a handful of people on the bus before it went on its route.

"Pointless protocols huh..." Curtis mouthed to himself.

"Curtis?"

"Another strand of the virus loose in the public." He mumbled once more, "This strand mutates any infected. Is this true?"

"I don't know." Jessica answered, "I don't hear much if anything from the research team. But I did hear people around the capitol talk about how it starts out as a mild fever. Then they form blisters all around their body accompanied by troubled breathing and death. That's when the mutation takes its final form."

"Seems like you know a lot more than you're letting on."

"I'm just repeating rumors." Jessica refuted and continued, "They say people turn into rage-like mutants who maliciously attack anyone in their vicinity."

"Seems like something out of a horror novel."

"It might not be science fiction." Jessica added, "When I was roaming around the science wing in the capitol, I noticed a man that looked malnourished, spotty, and disfigured. He was revolting to look at it, but he made odd sounds. It was like a low growl accompanied by odd whistles."

"What happened then?"

"I don't know. I was caught by some of the scientists and I was escorted away. I tried to ask Brian about it but he ignored my question."

"Looks like they're hiding something."

"Sounds like human experimentation gone wrong and a strand of the virus was possibly released into the atmosphere."

"If the strand could be spread airborne, we'd be seeing another pandemic of epic proportions." Curtis shook his head and crossed his arms, "It's not likely that it's airborne."

"Do you think the person escaped?"

"That or something much worse."

They remained quiet until they reached the low-end bus depot. They stepped out and were greeted by more soldiers. They only nodded and allowed them to walk in without problem.

"They're rather lenient."

"The soldiers here hold close bonds to the sanctuary. They help a lot and usually donate a lot of their earnings to the mayor. Still, it's not enough."

Jessica looked around at the beaten down sanctuary and was stunned at its condition. She looked at multiple people sleeping on the streets. This included children who were definitely malnourished or extremely ill.

"This is an everyday occurrence for people here." Curtis explained, "Hundreds die every week because they don't have enough to get by. I make just enough to be able to provide for my whole family."

"This is..."

"A terrible way to live, but it's the card that's been dealt to us the second we're born."

"I'm so sorry...," Jessica grabbed Curtis's hand and said, "that you have to live like this."

"I'm used to it. Been living like this since I was 2 and I doubt it'll change."

"You might be used to it, but that doesn't mean you like it."

"You're right. I don't like it, but I don't have any choice." The two stopped in front of a run-down house and he knocked, "Don't act weird in front of my family. They're already going to freak out because you're here."

"I understand."

A middle-aged woman opened the door and was happy to see them.

"It's good to know you made it back safely Curtis." The woman gleefully greeted, "Who's your friend?"

"Jessica," Curtis started, "take your disguise off. You don't need it."

Jessica slowly took off her disguises and the woman's face quickly grew into a face of fear.

"Curtis!" She shouted, "How could you bring Jessica Hardin here?"

"I didn't. She insisted on accompanying me back home."

"Ms. Hardin," the woman started, "h-how much do we have to pay? I'm sure we can give you everything we have to make up for this."

"N-No." Jessica stuttered, "That's unnecessary. I wanted to come here."

"W-Why?"

"I enjoyed spending time with Curtis and I wanted to come with him. Plus, the new safety protocols for shuttle busses requires you to be accompanied by someone. I was the only one he knew in the high-end, so I did it because I wanted to."

"O-Oh my." The woman was shocked. She looked around behind her and said, "P-Please come in."

Moments later, they sat at a ragged table where everyone sat at. Including another man along with an elderly couple.

"I'm so sorry that you have to enjoy our food Ms. Hardin." The man apologized, "We try our best to get by."

"It's no problem. Honest. I've actually seen how bad it is. I'm never informed on the social life of those in the low-end."

"I doubt they would." Curtis added, "They keep out of everything else."

"Don't be so rude." The woman berated, "Don't say such in front of her."

"No." Jessica refuted, "He's right. I'm not told anything. I have power, but I'm really only known as Brian's wife." Jessica looked at the elderly woman who just kept smiling at her, "Good evening ma'am. I hope it's no trouble that I'm here."

"No trouble at all sweetie. I'm just glad that my grandson was able to bring home such a beautiful girl. Even if she is married to another man. It's just great to finally see him with a person of the opposite sex."

"Oh. Thank you. May I ask why is that?"

"Well," the elderly woman started to explain, "he already doesn't have many friends as is, but he's even more socially inept when it comes to women. We were starting to worry if he'd ever find a wife let alone a female friend."

"M-Miss..." Jessica stuttered, "I don't think..."

"Don't embarrass her Grandmama." Curtis groaned, "Let's just eat and we'll figure out how she'll get back to the high-end."

Later that night after dinner, Curtis started to walk out of the house and was stopped by Jessica. She stared at Curtis's hands and noticed a lighter in one while he held a cigarette in the other.

"You smoke?"

"I don't smoke all the time. I just do it to destress myself."

"You're stressed?"

Curtis sighed and ushered her to follow him, "Let's talk outside. My family is already sleeping so I don't know wanna wake 'em."

The two sat outside while Curtis lit his cigarette. He took a few puffs while Jessica adamantly watched him.

"I'm stressed from my workload," he started to list off randomly, "my family life, my financial problems, and now you."

"M-Me?" Jessica questioned, "Why would I stress you out?"

"I'm housing the wife of Brian Hardin. President Of The BCTF (Bio-Chemical Task Force). Not only that, but he runs every single sanctuary. Once he finds out you're here, I'm as good as dead." Curtis took one more big puff of his cig and scoffed, "I'm just gonna get my one last smoke in before that happens."

"That won't happen." Jessica shockingly stated, "I'll give you a pardon."

"I don't think a pardon will completely get me off scot-free." Curtis was about to puff again, but Jessica snatched the cigarette from his hand, "Jessica."

"Stop." She threw down the cig and stepped it out, "I'll get you a pardon. I... won't allow anything to happen to you."

"What are you saying?"

"I've already said that I hate the high-end, but I trust you enough to say this." Jessica took a deep breath and looked at Curtis, "I never wanted to marry him. I was forced to by my family so that I could live a good life, but the high life isn't a good life. I want to live with my family again. I miss them..."

"Why don't you leave?"

"I'm bound by marriage to Brian. I can only visit my family."

"That's..." Curtis stared at the ground and sighed, "Do you even love that man?"

"I..."

"Don't worry about it right now. We should probably try and find a way to get you back home."

"I already said that I'm fine with sleeping here for the night." Curtis was about to say something, but Jessica interrupted him, "Don't worry. It's fine."

"It's not that. There's not many places to sleep in this house."

"Where do you sleep?"

"In the living room on the floor."

"And your family?"

"They have their own room." Curtis stood up and stared at his cig, "I think you owe me for that cig. Cigs are expensive in the low-end."

"What?"

Later that night, they laid down on the floor of the living room with their backs facing one another. Jessica turned around and stared at his back. She noticed some lash marks on his back and moved her hand to touch them.

"They're from my jobs." Curtis interrupted, "I work a lot of jobs here in the low-end and it's nearly impossible to get out of a job without a few lashes or injuries."

"I wish I had known it was bad here." Jessica rubbed the marks and commented, "They're deep."

"They tend to be."

"I wish I could help, but Brian gets the final say on any domestic affairs."

"You don't need to do anything. Just stand there," Curtis turned around and stared at Jessica, "and look pretty."

"I want to do more. I'm just a staple for him. I want to help everyone, but I can't."

"Don't beat yourself up over that." Curtis noticed a tear forming in her eye and wiped it away, "You're a good person. Don't let the amount of power you have cloud who you are."

"Curtis..."

"Yeah?"

Jessica inched closer and was about to pucker her lips, but Curtis turned around.

"Huh?"

"Let's get to sleep Jessica. It's late."

"R-Right..."

That next morning, Curtis and Jessica were just about dressed back up to travel on the shuttle busses again while their family were saying their goodbyes to Jessica.

"We hope it was to your liking here Ms. Hardin." Curtis's mom stated, "It wasn't too dirty was it?"

"It was fine Ms. Page. It was perfectly fine."

"If you can, please spend time with our son again." Curtis's dad pleaded, "He seems so much better when he's with you."

"I'll definitely make it my mission to spend time with him the next time he's in the high-end."

"Let's gp Jessica." Curtis called out, "We gotta get going before the early shuttle bus leaves." Curtis opened the front door and was confronted by a middle-aged man accompanied by two soldiers heavily armed. Even more armed than the basic soldiers on shuttle bus checkpoints.

"B-Brian..." Jessica stuttered, "What are you doing here?"

"Saving you from these kidnappers." Brian nodded to the soldiers and they aimed their rifles at Curtis and his family, "Don't worry sweetie. I'll bring you back from this horrid place."

"W-We weren't kidnapping..." Before Curtis's dad could finish, Brian drew a handgun and shot him in his shoulder, "Ah!"

"Dad!" Curtis growled and stepped forward, "You son of-." He stopped when he the soldiers aimed their weapons at him.

"Arrest him." Brian ordered.

"What?!"

The soldiers grabbed Curtis and cuffed him. They dragged him outside and threw him to the ground.

"No!" Jessica shouted, "Stop!"

Curtis tried to get up, but Brian stepped on his back and aimed his handgun at the back of his head.

"Let this be a lesson to all of you!" Brian shouted as citizens gathered around, "You do anything to anger me or anyone else in the high-end, you will be executed!"

"Brian. Stop this now!"

"Why?"

"I'm giving him a pardon. Don't execute him. Please."

"You really think I'm going to let this trash go without a punishment?!"

"No, you don't, but you don't have to kill him!"

Brian frowned and kicked Curtis, "You're lucky my wife is merciful. If it weren't for her, your brains would be splattered all over the ground there." He walked towards Jessica and said to Curtis, "You're banned from using the shuttle busses for 6 months."

"But that's how I provide for my family!" Curtis shouted.

"Then you should've thought about that before you kidnapped my wife!"

"I didn't kidnap her!"

"Quiet it you!" One of the soldiers slammed the butt of their rifle on Curtis's face.

"No!" Jessica shouted and tried to run forward but was held back by Brian.

"We're leaving. Leave him alone on the ground." Brian dragged Jessica away while the soldiers accompanied him.

Curtis looked up to see Jessica mouthing the words while being dragged away, "Save me..."

Curtis buried his face in the ground while his parents rushed over to help him. Curtis closed his eyes and thought about her words.

Curtis sat in the living room while his mother tended to both his wounds and his father's. Curtis stare at the ground while grasping his hands fiercely.

"She needs help..." Curtis growled.

"No Curtis."

"She mouthed to me before she was taken away that she wanted to be saved from him." Curtis bounced his knee and shook his head, "She doesn't want to be with him. She doesn't love that man." Curtis quickly stood up and walked off, "She's in an unhappy marriage where she has no say and she wants to get out of it. I'm going to save her."

"Son..."

"Dad," Curtis turned towards his father and said, "I finally found someone I can trust. A person I'm comfortable with. A persona that I can love. I finally found that one person."

"You've...?"

"I'm going to go out there past the walls and make my way back to her. I don't care how long it takes."

"If the boy wishes to put his life on the line for a woman," his grandfather started, "then so be it." His grandfather smiled at him and said, "I can't wait to see you come back home with that beautiful woman as your wife."

"I will."

Later that day, Curtis walked up to one of the soldiers who breathed deeply and walked over to him. He looked Curtis up and down before taking off his helmet and mask.

"He really did a number on you."

"Granted, it was 3 on 1."

"Still." The soldier clicked his tongue and walked back over to his post, "What are you doing here anyway? You're banned from using the shuttle bus."

"I need some weapons."

"For what exactly?"

"I'm going past the walls."

The soldier took one look at Curtis and scoffed, "Nice one. You were always the funny guy Curtis."

"I'm serious Will. I'm going out past the walls." The soldier, Will, groaned and turned around while Curtis continued, "That woman. Jessica. I've never felt the same about anyone ever. I need to get her out of that high-life."

"So you get her out and then what?"

"I'm taking her back to her family." Curtis explained, "She misses them and momentary visits every other week isn't how a person should live. She should be able to visit her family whenever she wants to. Not when she's permitted."

"But Curtis..."

"No Will. I'm helping her out of the hell she's been forced to live."

"How are you gonna do that exactly?"

"It'll take me what? A few weeks, even just over a month to get there on foot. I think I'll have it figure out by then."

"And you plan on doing this alone?"

"I doubt anyone out there is crazy enough to join me on this suicide mission."

Will looked at him and simply turned around, "I can give you a map of the general area and which route is the safest, but that's it. I cannot supply you due to the risk of being executed by Brian. I'm sorry. This is all I can do."

"Whatever."

"Come back here in around an hour and I'll have the map ready for you."

"Alright."

After that, Curtis walked through the streets and entered a shop of some kind. It was empty and only a lone person stood behind the counter.

"Julia," he called out, "I need some help."

The woman, Julia, turned around and smiled at Curtis, "Hey there. Are you alright after this morning?"

"I don't know if alright is the right term to describe me right now."

"Kidnapping Jessica Hardin. I didn't think you had it in ya'."

"I didn't kidnap her!" Curtis slammed his fist on the counter and calmed himself, "We met at the mid-end checkpoint. She offered to accompany me to the high-end due to their new safety protocols. Then she offered to come with me back here."

"You two hit it off huh?" Julia sounded pained as she said this, "Didn't think you could rope 'er."

"It was odd. We were practically the same. Socially awkward and having the same views on everything about this world."

"What?" Julia wiped her hands and walked around to join him on the counter, "Than why doesn't she do anything about this place?"

"She has no real power. She's really just the wife of Brian and she hates it."

"Hates being his wife or hates not having power?"

"She hates both. Not having the power to change this and being in a marriage relationship that she's forced to take part in."

"Forced? She was arranged to marry him?"

"That's right and I'm getting her out of it."

"What?"

"I need you to get me a shotgun, a short broadsword, some duct tape, and some ammo."

"Now wait a second."

"Hey Curtis," Will interrupted as she stepped into the shop, "I have the map for you."

"You're letting him do this Will?" Julia questioned.

"I couldn't dissuade him."

"Well, how are you going to get to the high-end when you're banned from the shuttle busses?"

"He's going past the walls."

"Oh hell no!" Julia fiercely turned Curtis around a pinned him to the wall behind him, "You're not going to go past those walls on some suicide mission that won't even end well!"

"You don't understand." Curtis growled, "I finally met someone I can feel at ease with. I met someone I've fallen in love with. I have to do this!"

"Th-Then," Julia stuttered, "I'm going with you!"

"What?!" Curtis shouted back, "There's no way you're going out there with me."

"It's either I go with you or I get the soldiers on you." The two glared at one another causing Will to pull them apart.

"Quit bickering like children." He sighed and held the two apart, "I'm sorry Curtis, but she's right."

"She is?"

"I am?"

"You can't go out there without proper help." Will dropped his grip on the two and placed the map on the counter, "It'll be hard to go out there on your own when you have no knowledge of what's out there."

"What do you mean?"

"BCTF soldiers are forced to train outside the walls. I know what's out there and I know how to traverse." He pointed at the sanctuary they're in now and explained, "Right now, we're in what used to be the outskirts of Dayton, Ohio. Where you wanna go is what Pittsburg used to be. By shuttle bus, it'd usually take 8-10 hours. However, by foot, it may take upwards to several days if we don't rest and we don't have any detours."

"What's in between?" Julia asked.

"The mid-end sanctuary that used to be Columbus. It'll be our major stopping point when we need to rest."

"What about before the mid-end?" Curtis interrupted.

"That's where I come in." Will explained, "BCTF soldiers were forced to camp outside the walls for several days during training. So I'll know where the best place is to camp out for a night."

"And equipment?" Curtis started, "We obviously need equipment, weapons, and such."

"I can provide the rations, sleeping bags, flint, and other survival items. Weapons is something I cannot provide."

"Julia." Curtis probed, "I already told you what I want."

"Fine..."

"I'm gonna go get geared up." Curtis stated, "We'll meet back at the shack connecting to the outside."

Back at his house, Curtis stood in his bathroom staring down at the sink. He looked up at the broken mirror and sighed. He wore a long sleeve, navy blue shirt with a chest rig. He had dark combat pants and boots. He also had a holster that held nothing. He slowly brought a tie up to his hair and tied it into a ponytail.

"You're really doing this?" Curtis's mom asked, "You really love Jessica that much?"

"I'm sure. I've never felt this way about anyone else ever. I have to do this mom."

"Well," Curtis's mom hugged Curtis and kissed him on his forehead, "just get home safe. Both of you. I'd love to see my new daughter-in-law."

"I will." Curtis walked out into the living room and sighed, "I'll be back everyone. With a wife in my arms!"

Moments later, Curtis, Julia, and Will stood in front of a door that separated them from salvation and the new unknown.

"Here Curtis." Julia handed Curtis a shotgun, a short broadsword, the duct tape, and some ammo, "What's the duct tape for?"

"A little bit of leverage." Curtis proceeded to tape the saber under the barrel of the shotgun, "Just a minor modification."

"You could've just asked me for a bayonet." Julia groaned, "We have some at the shop "

"Don't think a small bayonet is as affective as a broadsword." Curtis loaded the gun after firmly taping the sword onto the shotgun and cocked it, "Are you 2 sure you want to do this?"

"It's not like we can back out now." Julia commented, "Besides, someone needs to be there to back you up."

"And someone needs to break you two up when you start bickering."

"Whatever." The two say in unison.

Curtis walked over to the door and placed his hand on it, "You two ready?" They both nodded making Curtis take a deep breath, "Alright. Let's do this." And then he opened the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And you've finally made it! I hope you all enjoyed it. Please give your thoughts on this. Constructive criticism is always great. I just won't accept pointless flames. I'd like to know what you like, what you didn't like, how you think the story will go, and just generally what you thought of it. Is this unique? Is this something you'll stick around with until the end? Like I said, I've compiled a story bible while writing this. Also, I will try and have uploads be weekly. On which day they'll be uploaded, probably a Saturday or Friday. Depends on which is better. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed and I'll see all of you in the next chapter!


	2. The First Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know how this chapter uploaded without me actually uploading it, but here is the chapter several days early. As of the upload of this chapter, there are currently 6 chapters completed. I am currently writing chapter 8 and will be hitting the halfway point soon. So enjoy this early chapter for the time being while I get to work on the next chapters.

Curtis walked ahead of the group and took a look around. Everything was gone. The streets were bare and asphalt roads were now either gone or chipped beyond repair. Trees were also scarce, and others were just dead and lacking leaves.

“Is this what outside the walls look like?” Julia asked while picking up a branch that broke in half the instant she picked it up, “Is this why they board out windows on shuttle busses?”

“Yeah.” Will answered, “I’m pretty sure all of you know how corrupt it is. They want to hide this and make it seem like the outside is in a rebuild state, but it’s not.”

“It doesn’t even look like we can rebuild out here.” Curtis stopped and touched some of the dirt on the ground and shook his head, “None of this ground is fertile enough to farm on or firm enough to build a foundation. Everything out here is fucked.”

“The areas outside the walls are unfit for human inhabitants.” Will placed a hand on Curtis’s shoulder and squeezed it, “It’s why we’re confined to our sanctuaries. For reasons like this.”

“That doesn’t make sense.” Curtis quickly stood up and groaned, “How does lack of human activity cause this? If anything, the outside should be covered in trees and wildlife.”

“I wish I had an answer for ya’.”

“Whatever.” Curtis shrugged Will of fand continued walking, “Let’s just get going. We’re wasting daylight.”

In the high-end sanctuary, Jessica stood on her balcony staring over the bustling high-end life. She looked at her hand and envisioned herself walking with Curtis in the low-end that night before. She brought hands to her chest and hugged them.

“Curtis…”

“Is something wrong dear?” Brian asked as he wrapped his arms around her, “You’ve been different ever since we came back from the low-end.”

“I don’t like how you treated him.” Jessica quickly moved away from Brian and back inside their room, “Beating him and threatening to execute him was just a heinous act. You even shot his father.”

“Sweetie, I was only trying to protect you.”

“Protect me from what? From people who can’t even fend for themselves or people who are already malnourished and ill?”

“What are you trying to say?”

“Those people in the low-end need our help, but we focus all of our domestic affairs to the high-end. The low-end citizens are suffering. Children are suffering.”

“Jessica,” Brian sternly started, “the lives of the high-end will determine when we can properly leave the walls. You know what’s out there. If we waste resources for the low-end, it’ll just make our lives here worse.”

“But.” Jessica was about to say more, but Brian held up his hand and his phone started to ring, “Huh?”

“I gotta take this?” Brian left the room and started talking to whoever was on the phone. Jessica slowly walked to the door and put her ear against it, “What?!” Brian shouted, “They’re moving outside the walls?”

“Who?” Jessica mumble to herself.

“That bastard from the low-end.” Brian growled, “Stop them from getting any farther. Use any means necessary to stop them.”

 _“Low-end?”_ Jessica thought to herself, _“Curtis?!”_

“Kill them by any means necessary.” Brian barked, “Make sure they don’t get any farther from the low-end.”

 _“Why did he go past the walls? Why?”_ Jessica backed up and walked towards the balcony again and looked over the buildings and past the walls, “Please be safe Curtis. Please be safe…”

Curtis, Will, and Julia followed the path Will wrote out and were making great time. Curtis looked around before looking ahead of himself.

“We’re making some distance here.” Curtis commented, “We’ll be able to reach the mid-end within the next day or two.”

Julia sighed in relief and laughed, “I’m so glad we’re making up some good time and distance. It’s kinda unbearable out here with the lack of shade and the sun beaming down on us.” Julia looked at both Curtis and Will to ask, “How are you two not sweating unbearably?”

“I did train out here.” Will answered, “So I’m pretty used to it.”

“This is nothing compared to the amount of jobs I work. This is like a literal walk in a park.”

“Wow…” Julia stretched and bent over to catch her breath, “Wait up you two.”

“Don’t bend over.” Curtis commented. He walked over to Julia and brought her hands behind her head and said, “This helps you breathe better.”

“Thanks.” Julia took some deep breaths and stretched a little, “Mind helping me stretch?”

“We should probably set up camp somewhere.” Curtis commented, “I’ll help you stretch out then.”

“Hm,” Will started while looking at the map, “our camping spot should be a few minutes away. Can you hold out until then Julia?”

“I can.” She answered.

“Just lead the way Will.” Curtis added.

“Just follow me. It’s in some trees this way. So we’ll be able to have some shade.” Will made a sharp turn left and moved into the path of a few dead trees.

The farther they went, the livelier the trees got. Julia looked around amazed while Curtis observed the wildlife. The two looked at each other and smiled.

“We’re here.” Will called out, “I’ll set up the tent while you help her stretch.”

Curtis nodded and walked over to Julia, “Alright. We’ve done stretches before.” Curtis held out his hands and said, “Hand me your arms.” Julia brought her arms behind her back and Curtis took them, “Now bend over.” Julia bent forward while Curtis repeated, “All the way.”

Will looked at them with a peculiar look, “There’s nothing weird about doing that?”

“We’re grown Will.” Julia answered, “Get your mind out of the gutter.” Julia bent further down and quickly stood up and jerked her head back and forth, “Alright. Legs next.”

Julia laid down on her back and cross her left leg across her right one. Curtis got down on his knees and pressed down on her legs.

“Ooo, not too hard.” Julia winced, “I don’t need that much of a stretch.”

“Oh suck it up.” Curtis pressed harder causing Julia to slap his arm, “Chill out Julia. Just let me help.”

“Dude,” Julia sat up and pushed him, “I didn’t need to stretch too much.”

“Quit being a baby.” Curtis spun his finger around and said, “Turn around. Let me help you loosen your neck.”

“Fine…”

“You two really are like siblings.” Will commented as he finished nailing stakes down into the tent, “I think it’s funny how I watched the two of you grow up from those 8-year old kids I saw before.”

“She only hung out with the other boys and looked at me as her older brother.” Curtis added while he massaged Julia, “It’s only just that we act this way, right?”

“No I understand, but I knew the both of you since they built that sanctuary. I just think it’s great to see the two of you grown up. Not to mention Curtis finally falling in love with a woman.”

“Don’t act like it’s never happened before.”

“That’s because it hasn’t.” Will laughed, “The only other woman you talk to is Julia and I’ve never seen you view her in that kinda light.” Will caught a rock in mid-air and saw Julia glaring at him out of the corner of her eyes, “But whatever. I just don’t see how you’re gonna get her out of Brian’s hands. He’s a very possessive man.”

“I’ll figure it out before hand.” Curtis paused for a second and looked around, “I don’t think we’re out here alone and I’m not just talking about the wildlife. I think we’ve been watched since we left the low-end.”

“There aren’t soldiers stationed out here.” Will retorted as he joined them, “Nobody is allowed out here unless they’re new trainees.”

“Maybe they’re using the trainees.” Curtis helped Julia up and looked around, “I’ll do some overwatch.” Curtis went into his bag and pulled out some rope. He tied the end and tossed it up to a high branch onto one of the trees, “I’ll get back down whenever I know we’re in the clear.” Curtis proceeded to climb up the tree.

“Will,” Julia growled, “you know how I feel about Curtis.”

“Look, it just slipped.” Will defended himself while using the stock of his rifle to hold her back, “Besides, with how he feels about Jessica, there’s nothing that’s going to deter him from getting to her.”

“Hm,” Julia tapped her chin and smirked, “not unless I change his mind.”

“What are you thinking Julia?”

“I’ll flirt with him on our trip and I guarantee you that he’ll stop this suicide mission before we get to the high-end.”

“I don’t know.” Will responded, “He seems so determined to get her. Shouldn’t we support him?”

“I should, but I’m competitive. You already know that.”

“Oh fine. Just get to sleep now.”

Will climbed into the tent while Julia looked up at Curtis who proceeded to take out a cigarette and smoke it. Julia scoffed and crawled into the tent.

Later that night, Curtis had fallen asleep on tree trunk rather than climb down it and sleep in the tent. He squirmed around while the voice of Jessica echoed in his head while he slept. He scrunched his face and jolted up. He looked around and saw that he was still on the tree trunk.

He sighed and shook his head, “Don’t worry Jessica. I’ll save you.” As soon as Curtis was about to fall asleep again, he heard distant gunshots. He listened again and heard them once more, “They’re coming from the north.”

Curtis started to slowly make his way down the tree just as Will crawled out the tent as well.

“Did you hear that?” Will asked when Curtis was just above the ground.

“Yeah. It’s coming from the north.” Curtis crawled into the tent and shook Julia was still sound asleep, “Wake up Julia.”

“H-Huh?” Julia slowly rose and yawned, “Is it morning yet?”

“Take a guess. Do you see any sunlight?”

“Why’d you wake me up then?”

“We have a problem. We have to move.” Curtis backed out the tent and joined back up with Will, “Any clue as to what they might be shooting at?”

“No clue. They’re pretty periodic, but there are different guns being fired.” Will shook his head and added, “I doubt it’s late night shooting drills from trainees because of that. It must be something else.”

“Is there a chance more people could be outside the walls.”

“I’m not sure, but it’s probably in our best interest to check it out.”

“Yeah.” Curtis grabbed is bag and shotgun just as Julia joined them outside, “Get geared up Julia. We’re heading towards the gunshots.”

“Could we not do that?” Julia pleaded, “They’re nowhere near us.”

“Correction.” Will interrupted, “Sounds like they could be just a few hundred yards from us.” He turned towards them and said, “If they get any closer, we could be caught in the crossfire.”

“Then we have no choice.” Curtis placed his bag on his back and checked his shotgun. He cocked it and said, “Let’s get going you 2.”


	3. There's More?

Jessica found it hard to sleep that night because all she could even think or dream about was living life with Curtis. She sat up and looked over at Brian who was still sound asleep. She stood up from the bed and stiffened up when Brian turned over.

She sighed in relief to see that he was still asleep and put her slippers on before walking out into the halls. She traversed around the building until she approached the science wing. She peaked around the corner and noticed some scientists heading down the hall.

She panicked and looked around. She noticed a supply closet down the hall she was on and sprinted towards it. She rushed inside and closed the door loudly. The scientists looked down the hall and shrugged off the noise before walking off.

Jessica sighed in relief and peaked out for a short second. She went back inside and backed into a locker inside the closet. She turned around and opened the locker to find a janitor’s uniform. She shrugged her shoulders and proceeded to put it on. She quickly stepped out wearing the uniform and took a deep breath.

“Let’s see what you’re hiding here.”

Outside the walls, Curtis and his group moved closer to the gunfire until they could discern the type of guns being fired.

“Sounds like an M14 and an AUG.” Will commented, “They’re not firing at each other. They’re firing at something.”

“Whatever it is,” Curtis started, “they haven’t stopped firing since we left our camp.”

“I think there’s only 2 people.” Julia added, “Two versus whatever they’re fighting.”

“Let’s pick up the pace then.” Curtis ordered, “Maybe they can help us get to the mid-end.”

Back at the high-end, Jessica walked around until she got to that same room she saw the person. She stared inside and saw them aimlessly walking around in the box they were trapped in. They made soft, periodic whistles and growls.

“It’s the same one I saw before.” She mumbled to herself, “It’s still here.” She looked around and sighed, “That rules out the rumor that it escaped.” She continued looking around until she saw multiple capsules with people laying down in them and being supported by ventilators, “What the hell?”

She tried to go inside, but the door was locked by a card-ID lock. She groaned and lightly punched the door, “Damn it.” She turned around and made her way back down the hall, “I gotta find a way to get inside. One way or another.”

Curtis saw two people in the middle of a large field firing at a group of other people who were attacking them. Curtis squinted and noticed what the assailants look like.

“Blisters covering body…” He listened and heard whistles, “And whistles. What she told me was true…” He looked at the others and ordered, “Let’s help them.” Curtis rushed forward brandishing his shotgun while the other 2 joined him holding their own weapons.

The armed people saw them and aimed at them.

“Whoa!” Curtis shouted, “We’re not here to fight!” Curtis stabbed one of the blistered assailants and shot it off the sword, “We’re here to help.”

“Thanks I guess.” One of them responded, “We’ve been fighting these things for so long. They just keep coming.”

Curtis looked around and saw 6 others, “Well we’ve slightly evened it out.” Curtis shot at the one he injured again and dodged another one.

Julia blasted into what tried to attack Curtis and shook her head, “These things aren’t even budging.” What she was firing into lunged at her, but was shot to the ground by Will, “Thanks Will.”

“Just fire into them until they’re dead.” Will ordered, “Don’t worry about wasting ammo. I have reserves.”

“Watch out!” One of the armed people shouted as it shot right next to Curtis. He turned towards it while they shouted, “Stomp on its head!”

Curtis nodded and delivered a fierce stomp to the creature’s face and killed it instantly. Curtis backed up while 4 of them eyed him. He brought his gun up to fire, but one of them pulled it away from him and tried to attack him. Curtis dodged and tried to run but was pulled to the ground by his bag.

“Get away from him!” Julia shoulder tackled one of them and fired into it. However, she was grabbed from behind and squirmed, “Get off me!”

“Duck your head!” One of the other armed people shouted.

Julia did as they instructed, and they fired at the creature attacking her. Julia shuddered and kicked the one on top of Curtis and dragged Curtis away. Curtis grabbed his shotgun and fire at it, killing it instantly after blasting its head off.

Will stomped on another creature, killing it. The last one hissed before running off. Will aimed at it but lowered his gun when it was too far to shoot.

“They’re fast.” Will commented, “They’re like Olympic sprinters.”

“We call those things Whistlers.” One of the armed people responded, “I’m Lola and my friend here is John. We’re from a sanctuary several miles north of here.”

“North?” Curtis turned to Will and asked, “Any clue where that might be.”

“The closest sanctuary north of here is what Springfield used to be. It’s another low-end sanctuary.”

“That’s right.” Lola confirmed, “We came from there because they stopped all shuttle busses coming in and out of there a few weeks ago. We’ve been trying to get to the mid-end, but we kinda got lost when those Whistlers attacked us.”

“Why do you call them Whistlers?” Julia asked.

“Because they whistle.” Curtis answered, “This is what Jessica was talking about.”

“Jessica?” John questioned, “You mean Brian’s wife? You got to talk to her?”

Curtis shook his head and said, “It’s a long story. It’s getting pretty late. You guys mind camping with us for the night? We’re trying to get to the mid-end too.”

“Oh for sure. It’ll probably be better to have more people fight those Whistlers off in case we run into more of them.” John held his hand out and asked, “And you guys are?”

“I’m Curtis. This is Julia and Will.”

John looked at Will’s armor and asked, “He’s part of the BCTF. Why’s he out here risking his life outside the walls?”

“He’s not your typical soldier.” Curtis answered, “He has a strong connection to the low-end he’s stationed in. So he’s kinda obligated to help us.”

“Well, it’s late.” Lola interrupted, “We were about to camp out close by if you want to set up camp with us over there.”

“Mmm…” Curtis sighed and said, “We abandoned our campsite to check out the gunfire.”

“Oh.” Lola perked up and said, “Just lead the way then.”

“Alright. Follow us.”

As for Jessica, she walked back into her bedroom to notice Brian standing outside on the balcony on his phone once again. She listened in while standing near the balcony door.

“So they’ve come in contact with them?” He asked. He waited a second before saying, “Observe them first. Then when they’re on the ropes, kill ‘em. Make sure they don’t make it to the mid-end. As for the extras, capture them and prepare them for the experimentations. We’re running low on test subjects here.”

“Test subjects?” Jessica muttered to herself, “What are you doing Brian?” Jessica backed up, turned around, and walked towards the bed.

“Where were you?” Brian asked behind her, “I woke up to see you gone.”

“I had to use the bathroom. I’m sorry.”

“Mhm.” Brian nodded and stood extremely close behind her, “What did you hear?”

“Huh?”

“What,” Brian quickly spun Jessica around and asked sternly, “did you hear?”

“I-I heard that you wanted someone killed…” Jessica quickly answered, “That’s when I got back into the room.”

“Hmph.” Brian pushed her back onto the bed and turned around, “It sounds like that stupid low-end bastard is moving outside the walls. You already know that travel outside the walls is banned and is punishable by death. Your pardon can’t save him there.”

“B-But…”

“Why are you so adamant on protecting him? Do you love him more than your own husband?”

“What?”

“Whatever. I’ll be gone for a few days.” Brian proceeded to walk out of the room while gathering his belongings saying, “They need me at the mid-end near here. You are to remain here. You are prohibited from leaving the high-end.”

“But how can I visit my family?!”

“You can write to them, but all travel to and from sanctuaries is now forbidden. We have some problems earthing outside the walls.”

“But…”

“No buts. Just stay put.” And with that, Brian left Jessica alone.

She ran to the balcony and was taken back by a rough breeze. She looked at the night sky before shifting her gaze beyond the horizon.

“Curtis, watch out. Things aren’t as they seem here…”


	4. A New Gadget/Unveiling The Truth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You might've noticed in the last chapter (for those that read it before this last week) that I changed one of the character's name. There was a mix in translation before I posted this. Lola was initially Kat, who was with John in the last chapter. When I had wrote the first 10 chapters, I had started out calling her Kat for the first 2 chapters after her debut, but changed it to Lola and stuck with it. So if you read the previous chapter before last week, then you'll notice the change in their names. Anyway, from here on out, Kat is now Lola. No other character has had a name change as I write the 12th chapter.
> 
> Also, the first 10 chapters are completed, but only up to 9 have been uploaded and are ready to be uploaded over the next few weeks. I suspect that I'll be able to get to the midway point before I take a break from this series. By that midway point, all chapters up to that chapter will be ready to be uploaded. So stay tuned and be sure to bookmark this series!

That next morning, Curtis was already awake observing the area. He smoked a cig while observing their surroundings. However, Curtis kept thinking about Jessica. He closed his eyes and visualized her once more. This was interrupted by Julia, however.

"Up so early?" Julia asked, "Shouldn't you sleep a little more?"

"We have to make up lost time." Curtis threw his cig to the ground and stomped it out, "Why are you up then if it's so early?"

"The smell of smoke woke me up." She stared at the cigarette bud on the ground and said, "You shouldn't smoke so much. You've been smoking so much since we left the low-end."

"You know it's just a de-stressifier for me."

"Are you that stressed to where you have to smoke so much?"

"With what's happened over the last 2 days, then yes, I am that stressed."

"L-Look. I didn't mean anything by that."

"Just wake everyone else up. We gotta keep moving." Curtis walked back towards the dirt road they were on the day before saying, "I'll be waiting on the road."

"Hm. Convincing him to stray away from Jessica is gonna be harder than I thought." Julia thought to the one day she saw Jessica that morning, "I have to admit. She is a beautiful woman, but that's because she's been tampered by that high-end lifestyle. Curtis doesn't fit that style."

Julia plopped down beside the tent and sighed, "Why can't this idiot see that this mission is only going to hurt him more than help him." Julia stared at Curtis while he walked towards the dirt road, "Shit man..."

"Hey there Julia." Julia turned around to see Lola standing there, "Up early are you?"

"I'm up early because Curtis was awake early. His cigarette smoke woke me up." Julia stood back up and sighed, "Lola, when did you and John meet and when did you find out that he was your older brother?"

"Wow." Lola chuckle and rubbed her neck. She breathed sharply through her teeth and answered, "I don't know. I was born when the pandemic was at its peak. I guess we met when we got thrown into the same low-end. I found out that he was my brother when my/our mom saw us.”"

"Whoa wait, you were born into the pandemic?"

"Yeah. I'm 15."

"15?"

"Yeah and John is 19."

"Oh wow. You two do not look your age."

"Well, when you live in a shithole world like this, you tend to age faster than you really are."

"But Springfield isn't that bad right?"

"You're what Daytona used to be, right?"

"That's right."

"Well, Springfield wasn't extremely bad until they cut off our shuttle bus travels."

"I thought they just did that."

"No. They shut it off for us 2 years ago."

"2 years? They just shut off ours when we first left. Why did they shut off all of yours?"

"The Whistlers." She solemnly answered. She stared at the ground as her tone changed, "They were sighted outside the walls and the BCTF forbade us from leaving. So many people died within those walls. Mostly children.” She choked up and added, “People were raped. Women, men, children all raped or murdered. Things were bad."

Julia hung on to every word Lola said. Yeah, life was bad in the low-ends. She's seen her fair share of rapes and murders at her home low-end sanctuary, but for it to have affected Lola so much must've meant that things were at their utmost worst. Not to mention that Lola is only 15. Memories like that have more effect on a younger, still-growing mind.

"John and I, along with 5 others decided to leave the low-end and make our way to the mid-end a few weeks ago. However, our 1st week outside the walls, we lost those other 5 to countless Whistler attacks. Just when we thought we'd held those first Whistlers, 20 others appeared. Our only option was running away. But one by one, our group fell, and it led to just the two of us."

Julia could hear the pain in her voice. She described everything she had gone through in such vivid detail. Julia felt an overwhelmed by her words that all she could do was comfort her like a big sister to a little sister.

* * *

Meanwhile, Jessica sat outside on the balcony of her room staring at the sky. Her mind remained on Curtis and Brian's words last night.

_"Do you love him more than your own husband?"_

Jessica grabbed her heart and muttered to herself, "Yes. I love that man..." She slowly stood up and walked over to a desk in the room. She took out some piece of paper and a pen.

She glanced at both before slowly gripping the pen. She slowly sat in the chair and furiously started writing.

She endlessly wrote for the next hour. Whenever she messed up, she quickly balled up the piece of paper and would restart from scratch. Throughout that first hour in the morning, she compiled a letter that was meant for Curtis. She placed a extravagant sticker on it and nodded. She hugged it and placed it in her desk.

“I will give this to him when he finally gets here.” She slowly walked out to the balcony and smiled, “I’ll be waiting for you with arms wide open.”

* * *

On the road, Curtis and his group were well on their way towards the mid-end. They could see the walls of the mid-end over the horizon and the group felt relief after their close encounter with the Whistlers.

“Just a few more hours before we make it to the mid-end.” Curtis commented, “I’m sure now would be a good time to take a break to rest our feet.”

“Don’t have to tell me twice.” Julia bounced up and down while stretching her legs, “My feet have been killing me for the last hour.”

“Hey John,” Curtis called out, “do you know how to do any modifications? Will has kits to improve our weapons, but he’s not exactly a gunsmith.”

“I’m not sure.” John then asked, “What are you looking to do?”

“My shotgun will only be good for so long and I need a way to keep the sword from falling off.” Curtis ripped the sword off the under barrel of the shotgun and stabbed it into the ground, “One stab into a Whistler made me realize how thick their skin is.”

“The blisters on their skin act like blubber.” Lola explained, “Their skin is thick and makes it hard to pierce with just a normal sword, let alone a dull one like that.”

“Dull?”

“Yeah. I can sharpen your sword if you want while John figures out a way to permanently infuse it to your shotgun.”

“In the meantime,” Will interrupted, “we should probably see if we can see the wall from here.”

“Do we have binoculars?”

“We do, but I think we can just barely see it.

“Hand me the binoculars.” Curtis ordered, “I’ll try and find a tall tree to lookout from.”

“Wait,” Will dug into his tac bag and took out some gauntlets, “they’re grappling hook devices that BCTF soldiers use. I don’t think it’s practical to constantly use rope to climb a tree.”

“How do I use them.”

“Put ‘em on and I’ll show you.”

After a few moments, Curtis adjusted the gauntlets and moved his arms around. He didn’t like the bulkiness, but he had no other choice.

“Okay. How do I use them?”

“You see that dead tree over there?” Will pointed over to a nearby tree that was falling apart and rotten, “Aim one of the gauntlets at the tree and when you feel it gripping the tree, lift, and pull.”

“Lift and pull?” Curtis aimed at the tree, but when it shot out, the grappling hook clipped his hand. This made him flinch and the hook fell limp mid-way, “The hell?”

“Make sure your hand is out of the way. If not, you’ll lose a finger or two.”

“So I aim it like Spiderman or something?”

“Yeah. More or less.”

“Probably exactly…” Curtis bent his hand back so that the hook wouldn’t hit his fingers and it launched at fierce speeds. It latched onto the tree and he pulled n it, “Uh…”

“Don’t pull it by support. Pull using your wrist and with all your might.” Curtis stared at his wrist and he pulled quick and hard. He was yanked across the open field towards the tree.

“Shit!”

“Did you tell him how to land?” Julia looked at Will who stood holding a blank stare, “You idiot.” Julia sprinted past him while Will turned to the other two.

“It should be common sense on how he should land.” Will commented.

“No it’s not.” Both John and Lola quickly respond.

Julia ran forward to see Curtis fall and roll forward. He rolled for a second before just narrowly missing the tree. He groaned and supported himself on all fours.

“Curtis!” Julia called out, “Are you okay?”

“Could’ve been worse.” Curtis slowly stood up with the help of Julia, “But I think it’ll take some time to get used to the g-force. Still, this is useful.”

“But dangerous.”

“It’ll definitely be useful for if we need to climb the wall of the mid-end.”

“I highly doubt we’ll need to do that.” Julia wanted to offer a shoulder to Curtis, but he shrugged her off, “Are you sure?”

“I’m definitely sure. I didn’t break anything.” Curtis walked back and looked at the gauntlets, “I wish they weren’t super uncomfortable.”

* * *

In the capitol, Jessica laid down on her bed thinking to herself, _“Since Brian’s gone, I think I have a chance to figure out exactly why they need people to experiment on.”_ She sat up and quickly slipped on her boots before stepping outside. Nobody stood outside her door which was rather odd.

Usually when Brian leaves to go on a trip outside of the sanctuary, he leaves two guards outside her door 24/7. However this time, there wasn’t a guard insight. One of the janitors passed by, so she probed them for information on why.

“Excuse me.” She called out, “Do you know why the building lack any guards?”

“Most of the BCTF soldiers left for the surrounding mid-ends Ms. Hardin. I’m not sure why, but they left pretty quickly with Brian leading one of the army of soldiers to the mid-end your family is in.”

“Why?”

“I don’t have an answer for ya’ Ms. Hardin.” The janitor waved her off and left.

“He said he wants Curtis killed by any means necessary. If he’s worried about one man so much, then why is he going through this much trouble just to stop him?” She eventually smirked and nodded, “If this means security is low, then that means I have a chance to investigate that science wing.” She looked towards both ends of the halls and went down the left.

“I’ll figure you out Brian. It was your mistake to leave me alone here knowing damn well that I don’t even like you.” She slipped into Brian’s office and looked inside, “If anyone has access, it’ll be you.” She rummaged through all of her husband’s belongings and couldn’t find anything.

“Where is that ID card?” She looked through each drawer, cabinet, and file that was in the office, “He always keeps a spare in his office.”

“Ms. Hardin.” A voice called out.

Jessica quickly turned around and stared at the person that called her name out. She trembled as she saw the scientist that was there the day she met Curtis.

“A-Ah…”

“Why are you in your husband’s office?”


	5. More Help

“What are you doing in your husband’s office?” The scientists asked.

“I-I was just making sure it was in order.” It was a half-assed excuse that the scientist didn’t even seem to believe.

“You’re here for this,” the scientists held up an ID card that had high-class clearance, “aren’t you?”

“W-What…”

“Here.” She tossed it to Jessica who fumbled with it, “I think you deserve to look at what he’s getting you and all of us wrapped up in.” And with that, the scientists left. However, she also dropped something on the ground on purpose.

The sound was familiar to Jessica. She trudged forward and saw what she had dropped. It was a handgun.

Jessica squat down and slowly picked up the firearm. She observed it and didn’t know what to do. She had never handled a firearm before. She was never taught how despite their current life.

One thing she did remember was where the safety was. She quickly put it away after checking if the safety was on and left the office. She looked around in case anyone else was in the area before walking off.

“That was close. I’ll head back out in the night.”

* * *

Curtis spent time while they were walking to the mid-end getting used to the gauntlets and he was definitely getting used to them.

"Seems like he has the hang of things now." Lola commented while watching Curtis lunge around, "Can those things break if he uses them too much?"

"Not those." Will answered, "The first versions and prototypes of that device broke within hours after continuous use. So they were only used in dire situations. Even then, they only lasted a few days before repairs."

“What about now?”

“They can be used for months before they need repairs. As for his continual use, I’ll give them a few weeks.”

“Do we stop him?” John wondered, “If they get used the way he’s using them, they’ll be useless in the future.”

Curtis beside them and performed a forward roll. He popped his neck and cracked his knuckles before turning to face the group.

“I’ve gotten the hang of them pretty well.”

“Good,” Julia started, “now stop using them.”

“Had to get used to them.” Curtis took out the map and looked it over. He nodded and said, “We have several miles to go before we hit that first checkpoint.” Curtis handed the map over to John to ask, “Do you have anyone around there that could help us.”

“I’m not sure. People began to leave the low-end a few weeks before us.” John walked forward a little bit while thinking, “Lola, do you know anyone?”

“Quite a few in that area.”

“You do?” Everyone asked in unison.

“It’s an insurgent group. Or one of them really.”

“Insurgents?” Curtis mumbled, “Are they good or bad?”

“They hold an extreme dislike towards Brian and the BCTF.”

“So why do you think they could be of use to us?”

“I don’t know if any of you notice, but there have been helicopters flying towards that mid-end and other mid-ends around the area.” Kat gripped her rifle and looked at Will, “Do you know anything about that?”

“Enough with that malicious look Lola.” Will sighed and answered, “I noticed them too and it’s pretty obvious why. They know we’re moving on the outside. Specifically, Curtis. He’s scared.”

“Scared?” John scoffed, “You mean Brian’s scared of Curtis?”

“I think he understands why he left the low-end and he knows that Curtis still stop at nothing to get to Jessica.” Will stared at distant helicopter landing in the mid-end ahead of them, “Not only that, but he’s scared of people he’ll get along the way. He knows he’s a tyrant. There’s no doubt about that. Which means he knows he has enemies both in his own ranks and out here. He’s preparing for the worst.”

“But there’s only 5 of us.” Julia added, “How can 5 people launch a full-scale assault on a mid-end?”

“The insurgents.” Curtis quickly answered, “If they hate Brian as much as I do right now, they won’t hesitate to help us. Where are they Lola?”

“Let me see the map.” Curtis handed her the map and she walked ahead, “Follow me. I’ll take you to one of their camps.” She turned around and jerked her head to signal them to follow her, “Let’s go.”

* * *

Meanwhile, Jessica wanted to find the scientist that gave her the card. However, she knew that the woman would be in the science wing; which is a place that she forbidden from entering. She decided to use her power to call her to her bedroom.

“I hope she actually gets my message.” She heard a knock at her door and she quickly responded, “Come in!”

The door opened and in came the scientist, “Ms. Hardin, you called for me?”

“Yes.” Jessica turned around and walked up to the scientists, “First, and I know this might seem bad, but I need to know your name.”

“It’s Sherry. Sherry Wallis. I take it that you remember from that day you were with that man.”

“Yes. You were who told us that we had to get off. Why?”

“Why as in: Why I told you to get off or why I gave you the ID for the science wing?”

“Both.”

“You’ll find the answer to both questions when you investigate the science wing.”

“But I need to know what I’m getting into before I even do it.” Jessica gazed fell to the ground as she vented, “If it means that I’ll be in danger, then I need to know what dangers I’ll be in so that I can be careful for Curtis’s sake.”

“So that’s his name.” Sherry slyly responded, “Is that the man Brian is so worried about?”

“He’s worried about him?”

“He’s worried about losing you _to_ him. You know how possessive he is. Whether it’s valuables or people. He’s possessive. And to him, you’re his most valuable possession.”

“But I…”

“He knows that man, Curtis, will stop at nothing to get back here in order to save you.”

“But sending so many troops to stop one man seems a little absurd.” Jessica crossed her arms and stared at the helicopters leaving the high-end, “Why does he want to stop Curtis specifically?”

“I’m not sure. It might not just be Curtis, but what might outside those walls.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I said you’ll figure that out when you find it in the science wing Ms. Hardin.” And with that, Sherry proceeded to walk out of the room, “In any case, I think you should figure out what he’s hiding from you ASAP.” Once the door closed, it echoed around the room.

Jessica stared at the door for a second before turning her gaze to the clock in the room. The time was 5:30 PM. She nodded and quickly grabbed the janitor uniform she stashed away in the room and put it on. She psyched herself up and peaked out the room. She nodded and walked out towards the science wing.

* * *

Curtis and his group stopped when they could smell burning wood in the distant. Lola held her hand up and gave the map to Will.

“I’m sure you know that the smell of firewood means that their camp is nearby.” Lola turned around and said, “Let me do the talking. This means all of you shut up and let me handle it.” She walked off making Curtis chuckle a little, “Problem Curtis?”

“Just thinking that a 15 year old is feistier than Julia when she was 15 years old.” Julia punched Curtis in his back, making him wince, “But she still holds that same strength.”

“Just let me talk, okay?”

They eventually arrived at the campsite that was open and multiple tents, campfires, and smells of stew could be caught by their noses. Once they were noticed, 3 people aimed their weapons at the group, causing Julia to do the same.

“Stand down Julia.” Lola ordered, “Put them down.”

“They drew theirs first.” Julia retaliated, “I won’t put mine down until they do.”

“That’s counterintuitive.” Curtis groaned, “We’re in their territory.” Curtis slowly pushed Julia’s hands down and said, “Get on with it Lola.”

Lola nodded to him before turning to the group, “Look, we don’t mean any harm. We’re just here look for some help. Who is the headmaster here?”

“That would be me.” A man wearing an old military bomber and combat pants accompanied by worn-out, brown boots, “Stand down.” He ordered.

“We were looking to try and get into the mid-end close to here, but I’m sure you realized that Brian has been sending endless amounts of BCTF soldiers towards surrounding sanctuaries, right?”

“That’s right.” The man looked at Curtis and said, “It’s because of him.”

“Me?” Curtis questioned, “Ha,” he scoffed, “I guess I’ve garnered a reputation that precedes me.”

“We’ll be willing to work with whatever help you need.” The man paused and glared at Will, “But we have to get rid of him.”

“What?”

Will was instantly surrounded by the other soldiers who pointed their weapons at him.

“We don’t tolerate any BCTF soldiers.”

Will looked over at Curtis while everyone stared in shock.


	6. Insurgents/Brian's Experiments

“We don’t tolerate any BCTF soldiers here.” The headmaster growled, “Take aim everyone.”

“Wait!” Curtis interrupted.

“Curtis wait…” Lola tried to hold Curtis back, but she wasn’t strong enough, “Wait damn you!”

“Let me explain.”

“Wait,” Lola finally pulled Curtis back and whispered in his ear, “I told you to let me talk.”

“Need I remind you that this is my group.” Curtis whispered back, “And they’re pointing guns at a friend of mine. Of course, I’m gonna butt in.”

“Curtis…” She growled.

“Can I explain.”

The man looked at him and nodded, “We can. In private.” He pointed at the ground and said, “Leave the shotgun.”

“Shit…” As Curtis tried to drop his shotgun on the ground, Lola snatched it from him, “Lola.”

“Don’t drop on the ground idiot. Look at the ground.” She stomped the ground to signify that it was muddy and wet, “Drop your gun here, it gets dirty, then it’ll jam. I don’t think it’ll be very useful to us jammed, right?”

“You know,” Curtis started, ‘you’re a lot scarier when you whisper maliciously.”

“Just go have your stupid talk.” Lola shoved Curtis ahead and pouted, “Idiot.”

“Wow.” Julia commented, “I’m supposed to call him that.”

* * *

In the high-end, Jessica slowly walked around acting as a janitor. Every scientist that walked by her didn’t suspect anything. Once everything was clear, she slowly inched her way back to the experimental lab.

She stared at the ID and placed it on the scanner. It beeped and unlocked the door. She smiled and quickly walked in.

The Whistler locked inside one of the chambers slowly stood up and turned towards her. It whistled before lightly banging on glass. She slightly jumped back from the initial bang but chuckled.

“Shatter proof.” She slowly walked to it and noticed its decomposing features. It still had some of its hair, but most of its head was covered in massive blisters. The same was said about their overall body. Covered in blisters and heavily decomposed.

“What are you?” She walked up and got a little too close. It punched the glass and she stumbled back from shock and fell onto the ground, “Whoa!”

“What was that.” A disembodied voice wondered from outside the room.

“Oh no. Gotta hide.” She looked around and saw a lack of places to hide, “Damn it.” She panicked and quickly hid under one of the desks, “This is not going to end well…”

* * *

Back at the insurgents camp, Curtis and the headmaster stood across from each other.

“Before we continue young man, I think it’s best we introduce ourselves to one another.”

“The name’s Curtis Page.”

“Oakland.” The two shook hands as Oakland said, “I gave up my real name years after this pandemic.”

“So are you from Oakland?” Curtis asked, “Wherever the hell that is.”

“No and how old are ya’?”

“20.”

“Well damn. You basically had no normal life.”

“Nowadays, this _is_ normal life.”

“Yup. It’s a hard pill to swallow boy.”

“So about my friend.”

“Is he trustable?”

“He’s one of the other people who raised me when I was a kid. When I would go outside to be with that one girl in my group, he would watch over us and make sure we didn’t get into any trouble.”

“But he’s a BCTF soldier.”

“He is, but he’s lived in our low-end since it was constructed. He’s one of the most trustworthy people from my home low-end and I’m not someone to trust people so easily unless I actually trust them, or if they provide some use to me.”

“Taught only to trust certain people I see.”

“More like trust nobody until they’re deserving of my trust.”

“So what about my soldiers and I. Are we trustworthy?”

“Seeing as you were about to execute my friend in cold-blood, I’d say that trust is a little strained right now.”

“Damn boy. You sure know how to play the intimidation game well.” He looked past him and said, “Alright, we’ll let him go. After that, you can explain your situation. I wanna hear why Brian is shitting his pants over you.” He then shouted to the soldiers, “Stand down. He’s good.”

Begrudgingly, they nodded and left Will alone. Oakland waved for them to follow him to one of the larger tents. Once everyone was situated, Curtis put his hand out in front of Lola.

“What?”

“My shotgun.”

“I’ll hold on it.”

“Give it.”

“Let me hold onto it Curtis.”

“It’s my shotgun, I made the modification-.”

“A pretty shitty modification.”

“Listen here Lola…” Curtis was about to say something but stopped himself, “John, your sister is pissing me off.”

“Don’t bring my brother into this.”

“He’s older than you and your sibling, so he has authority on how to treat you. I can’t punish you because I’m not your older brother. On the other hand, John is…”

While the two continued arguing, Will asked, “So what do you want to know?”

“Why exactly is Brian so scared of this man that he has to put half of his elite soldiers in every single mid-end within a 100-mile radius west of Pittsburg? Didn’t even think that man had that many soldiers.”

“He’s not just sending his elite soldiers from what it seems.” Julia added, “He might even be adding new recruits. He’s looking to increase defenses around the mid-ends by 130%.”

“So why?” Oakland asked again.

“Curtis,” Julia shot at Curtis and Lola, who were still bickering and said, “tell him why Brian is acting this way.”

Curtis stopped bickering with Lola and answered, “It’s because he probably thinks his wife doesn’t love him anymore and wants to get away from him which is actually true and it’s why I want to save his wife from her shitty situation.”

“Okay.” Oakland smirked and asked, “So the both of fell for each other. You fell for her and she held a genuine love for you.” Oakland nodded before saying, “It was quite obvious from the start that Jessica didn’t like that man. It was painfully obvious everyone who saw them together and I think Brian knows that too.”

“Which is why he’s worried about Curtis reaching her in the high-end.” Will confirmed, “Wow. You really hit it off with Jessica.” Will thought to himself and muttered, “Maybe we can use that to our advantage.”

“What do you mean?” Oakland asked, “Gonna use their relationship as leverage?”

“More than that. Give me some time to sleep on this. I’ll have the perfect plan to use their relationship against Brian.”

“Don’t make it put her in danger.” Curtis growled, “If she gets hurt from this plan, then I’ll regret not having them execute you on spot.”

“Duly noted…”

* * *

In the experimental lab, the scientists stormed in to see the Whistler banging on the glass. The scientists groan and took out a handgun.

“Stupid thing giving us problems.” He loaded the gun and aimed at it, “Open the chamber. We’re killing this problem.”

“But this is our last test subject.” The other scientist stated.

“It’s fine. I’m sure Brian will bring back for us to experiment on when he’s done at the mid-ends. We’ll just need to be patient.”

“Alright.” The scientist pushed something on their wrist and the chamber opened.

The scientists armed with the firearm fired 5 precise shots to the Whistler, killing it effectively.

“Burn it now.” The scientist ordered.

He pressed something else which caused the chamber to close and an eruption of fire to melt the Whistler into ash.

“Let’s go.” The two scientists left leaving Jessica alone again.

“What in the world?” Jessica slowly crawled from under the desk and dusted herself off, “That took 5 shots to kill. All to the head.” She stared at the chamber before moving her attention to the desk she was hiding under.

There were files scattered across the top of it and she picked some of them up. Each of them labeled: Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3 etc.

“The different stages of the infection.” She looked through them and saw multiple experiments, “They tested so many people. All of them from the surrounding low-ends. No wait.” She read more through each file and her eyes widened, “It’s people from low-ends nationwide. He’s been kidnapping, trading, and adopting people to experiment on. He’s experimented on children, elderly, disabled citizens. No way.”

“Now you know.” Sherry interrupted, startling Jessica, “Cool it. I’m not ratting you out.”

“Oh…”

“Now you see why so many of us don’t like Brian and his methods.” Sherry walked over to Jessica, “I can make a copy of these files and explain them more in depth. Give me an hour and I’ll see you in your room.”

“Okay…”

“Besides, you do not look right in a janitor jumpsuit. I’m pretty sure Curtis would agree…”

“W-Would he?”

“I so wish I could show him how shy you get whenever he’s brought up.” Sherry chuckled and walked off, “I’ll see you in your room in about an hour.”

“Okay.”

* * *

An hour later, Jessica sat at her desk writing in something. That’s when a knock was heard at the door.

“Come in please.” Sherry walked in carrying the files and placed them on her desk, “Excuse me.”

“Sorry.” Sherry picked the files up and asked, “What are you writing.”

“More letters. I know I can’t give them to Curtis, but it’s nice to just have them.”

“That’s sweet. Odd, but sweet.” She handed the files to Jessica who opened them, “These are the copies.” Sherry stared at Jessica looking through the files while saying, “So far, he’s experimented on over 20,000 people. All of them have turned into the creature you saw in that chamber.”

“Why? Why is experimenting on people and turning them into such a mutant?”

“He seems to be looking for something with the serums he’s creating. From my own research, he always changes one ingredient in the serum whenever something goes wrong. Which is obviously 100% of the time.”

“What exactly does he want from these serums? It just seems like he gets the same result every time.”

“He looks to give the serum to his soldiers. However, I don’t know what exactly he intends to get out of it.”

“Is that why the safety protocol was issued?”

“Yes. Several test subjects escaped around the area. So we had to make sure to keep everyone situated until we were given the all clear.”

“Wait. Those things are outside the walls?”

“I’m afraid so.”

“But Curtis is outside those walls.”

“I’m not someone to put faith in a lot of people, but if he’s determined to get to you, then he’s determined enough to take out some of those things.”

“It’s not that. I don’t want him to get hurt. He was already almost executed because of me. If he gets hurt or let alone killed while he’s trying to get here, then I don’t what I would do.”

“Jessica,” Sherry placed a hand on her shoulder and smiled at her, “do you not have faith in him.”

“O-Of course I have faith.”

“Then you don’t have faith in him if you’ll blame yourself for what happens to him.”

“I’m just worried for his well-being.”

“Let’s say this,” Sherry chuckled, “when you two get married, I just want to be one of your bridesmaids.”

“S-Sure…”

“Anyway, just focus on figuring this out for yourself. I’ll be here whenever you need me.” Sherry tapped her shoulder before leaving her in the room alone.

“So this is what you’ve been hiding from me, huh?” Jessica kept her eyes glue to each of the folders and studied them endlessly through the night.


	7. Counseling/A Target On My Back

Will gathered everyone together to explain his plan on how they would raid the mid-end if they needed to.

“Since Brian is worried about Curtis getting closer to the high-end that Jessica is in; he expects to go along the path we’ve been taking.”

“Yeah?” Julia agreed.

“If we hide Curtis during our first initial raid, Brian will think he had gone to one of the other mid-ends to throw him off.”

“This will lead him to spread his army even more thin than he already has them.” Oakland finished, “It’ll also lower his defenses at the mid-end we need to get to. Okay.”

“So, do I not participate in our first raid?”

“For now, Lola will lay back with a reserve force and yourself.”

“Why are you making me babysit him?” Lola frowned, “I think he can handle himself. He’s a grown man. Unlike me, I’m an innocent young girl.”

“Innocent my ass.” Curtis mumbled.

“What was that?”

“Oh sorry, did I not say it loud enough?”

“Julia,” Lola growled, “can I shoot him just once?”

“Well, the last thing I want is for him to be hurt unless I’m the one that hurts him.”

“So, can you shoot him on my behalf?”

“You can’t put my best friend against me.”

“You tried to put my own brother against me.”

Will sighed and talked over their argument, “If they’re going to make this work, they need to work. John,” Will looked over at John who laughed at Curtis and Lola arguing, “you’ll need to be some sort of councilor for them.”

“What? Why me?”

“Because Oakland informed me that some of their soldiers have no clue how to use a firearm. Julia and I will take care of that.”

“Well great.” He looked at the two glaring at one another and sighed, “I wish everything was still serious and not some sort of stupid counseling thing.”

* * *

Meanwhile, Jessica fell asleep at her desk when a janitor walked in. He acted ambiguously as he looked around. He snickered and tip-toed towards her and loomed over her. She noticed the shadow and turned around.

“Sherry is that-.” Before she could finish, she was grabbed from behind and slammed to the ground, “Ah…” She winced as she looked at who was attacking her.

“For the Insurgency…” He growled. He pulled out a large knife and gripped it, “He’s not here and you are.”

“G-Get back…” Jessica’s voice shook as she backed up, “Get back!” She remembered that the gun Sherry dropped for her was in her bedside table drawer and tried to run towards there, but was forced back onto the wall.

“That won’t work here.” He devilishly muttered, “They said I could do whatever before I kill you, so I’m make sure I get my do’s.” The man pinned Jessica to the wall and used the knife to cut her top off her, “Whew. Paying your family to give you away. Haha. Looks like you grew into a great body.”

“Stop…” She shook in fear as she waited for the inevitable.

Just before the man could continue, the door flew open and 3 loud bangs rocked Jessica’s ears. She flinched and shut her eyes while she heard a body fall onto the floor.

“Jessica,” Sherry called out, “open your eyes.”

“Huh?” She slowly opened her eyes and saw the janitor dead on the ground along with Sherry standing in front of her holding a handgun, “Sh-Sherry…”

“Stupid insurgents.” Sherry growled, “Trying to take your innocence before Curtis can do it.”

“Way too early Sherry.”

“Sorry.”

“Why though? I’ve never been one to be seen as a target. Why did that just happen now?”

“It’s the fear Brian has towards Curtis. As you know, a lot of people don’t like him as is. So there are a lot of conspirators here and one of their biggest targets is you. They probably scouted your room over the last few days after finding out that he sent most of the soldiers here away.”

“So, they’re using my vulnerability to rape and kill me?”

“Think about it. Rape the wife of someone you hate to make them act irrationally. Catch them off guard, then kill them.”

“But Curtis.”

“If Curtis finds out, he’ll lose it and basically try and kill any insurgents he sees.” Sherry nodded and said, “I guess I’m helping you a lot more than you think.”

“Huh?”

“You have a target on your back. Not specifically due to your personality, but because of your relationship with Brian.” She took out some sort of device and said, “I’ll make some calls so that we can have some on-the clock security detail on you 24/7.”

“Sherry, I already hate my normal security detail watching me like that. I don’t want another one.”

“This one won’t invade your privacy. They’ll watch when needed. Just give me some time and I’ll make them scared to try this on you again.”

“Okay.” Although hesitant, Jessica nodded, “I trust you. Now,” Jessica pinched her nose and pointed over to the now, decomposing body, “can we get rid of the body? It’s decomposing at an oddly fast rate.”

“Jessica,” Sherry laughed, “have you done any type of physical activity ever?”

“No. Never.”

“Okay. I think if you want to impress Curtis when you see him next time, you’ll have to show your athletic prowess.”

“Why?”

“He lives in the low-end. He probably has a well-toned body from so much physical labor. Don’t you want to impress him?”

“Baby steps Sherry.” Jessica turned around and her lips tremored when she thought about Curtis’s body. She saw it once, but she fell in love with his body with how chiseled and hard it was.

“You’re thinking about his body now aren’t you.”

“No!”

“Right…”

* * *

In the camp, Curtis and Lola sat across from each other while John sat in between them. John sat visibly frustrated while he held his head in his hands.

“Okay, can you two not use so many swear words?” John begrudgingly pleased, “I don’t even know where you learned half those words Lola.”

“You’re really gonna ask that knowing where we came from.”

“Point taken.” John nodded, “Curtis, you could’ve handled the whole ‘Insurgents about to kill my friend’ situation a little better.”

“Better? I prevented them from executing him and they’re helping us. I think I did just fine. I bet Lola’s plan was gonna take days to complete.”

“It wasn’t going to take days. That’s too fast. It was gonna take at least a month to finish.”

“A month?!” Curtis exclaimed, “By then, Brian would’ve pulled out and Jessica would be in danger.”

“Gah!” Lola tackled Curtis to the ground and proceeded mount him and repeatedly slammed the back of his head on the ground, “You! Big! Dumb! Asshole!”

“Make! Her! Stop! John!”

“Calm down Lola.” John ripped his sister off Curtis and sighed, “Lola, he was able to make our trip to the mid-end faster now because of this. Besides, I don’t think he was going to want to talk to you anyway. Seems like he wanted to talk to Curtis from the get-go.”

“Whatever.”

“Anyway, she needs help with firearms.” Curtis commented. Lola tried to tackled him again, but was held back by John while Curtis added, “After seeing you shooting at those Whistlers, it looked like you don’t know how to stabilize let alone aim.”

“You know,” John started, “I see it too. Do you really have trouble handling your rifle?”

“It’s not just any rifle. It’s an AUG. She’s lucky its current design doesn’t make it a heavy weapon.” He looked at Lola and offered, “I’ll help her handle a rifle. You can help the other soldiers get a hold of their weapons.”

“Are you sure you want to stay alone with her while she has a loaded weapon.”

Curtis looked at Lola who avoided his gaze, “I’ll take my chances.”

“Alright.” John put Lola back onto the ground and pat her head, “Don’t kill him.”

“I’ll try not to. No promises.”

“Somehow, I think I might’ve dug my own grave and I’m about to bury myself in it.”

* * *

A few moments later, Curtis and Lola stood close, yet far from everyone else in firearm training. Curtis held Lola’s AUG above his head while she tried to reach for it.

“Give it!”

“No. I don’t need you discharging a shot on accident! Again!” Curtis looked behind him and shouted, “Sorry Tuck!”

“No problem.” An insurgency soldier waved over to them while being tended to by other insurgents.

“So we’re gonna try something that everyone can fire.” Curtis slung her AUG behind his back and picked up an AR-15, “Here. Simple rifle that has light recoil and is single fire.”

“I’ve…” Lola took the AR-15 and observed it, “Yeah I’ve never used this before.”

“The gun is literally one of the easiest to use. The recoil, in my opinion, is nonexistent.”

“Mmm…” Loly aimed the gun down the range and stared at a pair of soda cans, “Just shoot those cans?”

“Yup. Unlike the other insurgents here, you can probably get close to it.” He then looked at the other insurgents missing the cans by a mile, “If you don’t hit the can, that’s fine. But if you look like that…” Curtis pointed at the other soldiers, shook his head, and said, “Just don’t look like that.”

“I doubt I’ll look that bad.” Lola aimed down the field and shot 5 shots. 3 of them missed while the last two hit one of the cans, “Don’t worry about the first 3. You saw the last 2, right?”

“I did.” Curtis agreed, “At least you hit one of them, but as it stood, you got a 40% in your shots taken. Granted, you hit one target twice, you technically get 20%.”

“Both are still passing right?”

Curtis paused and called out to Will, “Hey Will! Is 20 and 40 percent failing?”

“Yes!” He called back out.

“Then no. You failed.”

“At least your blunt.”

“Oh, trust me. I could’ve been a lot worse.”

* * *

In the high-end, Jessica read through the files and found a pattern between them, “He goes up the age range. The first subject is a kid ranging from 10-15. Then 20-40 and 50-80. Why? Every 3-test subjects range from this order. But why?”

Jessica stood up and read them around her room while Sherry watched before falling asleep. Over the course of 3 hours, she changed positions around her room before ending on her bed, laying on her stomach. She kicked her feet behind her and quickly sat up, causing Sherry to abruptly awake from her slumber.

“He’s making a serum to make a super-human!” She shouted, “He wants soldiers to be stronger and he’s taking a shortcut to do so. But why?”

“Hm.” Sherry stood up and thought to herself, “Looks like we both have to do some investigating.”

“Well, I can actually make the right serum.”

“You can?”

“I need some ingredients.” Jessica handed Sherry a specific test subject’s results, “He was close. Very close. I found out that he was off by one ingredient.” Jessica loomed and glanced at the ground, “Sadly, that last ingredient is only available in two places.”

“And that is?”

“Any typical low-end or New Capitol City.”

“And nobody can leave.” She turned to her and asked, “What is it?”

“Well, the ingredients I need are: Hydrogen Chloride, Fluoride, Benzene, and a rare liquified substance known as Jerchlide.”

“Wait. I can reverse engineer some Jerchlide. It’ll take a few days though.”

“Take as long as you need. I might know the right ingredients, but I need to know the right measurements. Looks like I’ll be busy as well.”

“What are you going to use this serum for anyway? A present for Curtis.”

Jessica paused and looked outside her balcony doors, “Curtis will make it here, but I don’t think he’ll be able to get me out of here. I predict that if he manages to get past the mid-end, Brian will move me away from here to make him waste more time and possibly demoralize him.”

“So, you want to try and get him this serum so that he gets motivated more to save you, right? You wanna make him into a super soldier too, right?”

“That’s right.”

“Jessica, if it comes to it, I’ll hand it to him.”

“You will?”

“Of course. I hate every ounce of Brian, and I would wish for the day that he would get his comeuppance. If Curtis can hand him that asskicking everyone wants, then I’ll gladly give the serum to him.”

“Okay.” Jessica hugged Sherry and thanked her, “Thank you so much.”

“No problem.”


	8. Lola's Alone Time/A New Danger

Curtis watched Lola fire more shots and her precision was on point, but her accuracy was still rather bad. However, he noticed something while she shot.

After she would finish off a mag, she would roll her shoulder and wince in pain, “Hm.” He mumbled, “You know why your shoulder hurts?”

“I feel like this is a rhetorical question.” Lola responded.

“Yup. Look, I see you digging your shoulder into the rifle and you stiffen up every time you pull the trigger. Do that long enough and you dislocate your shoulder. It won’t be a fun time.”

“Well. You haven’t really shown me how to do anything. I’m not an auditorial learner. I’m a visual learner.”

“Alright fine. Here.” Curtis walked over to Lola and fixed the rifle in her hands, “Don’t dig it into your shoulder when you shoot.”

“U-Uh…”

“Now your stiffening up. Relax and pull the trigger.”

“Don’t get so close to me.” Lola pushed Curtis off and growled, “What are you? Some sort of pervert trying to touch me?”

“What? No. Besides, social constructs like consent doesn’t exist in this world now. Need I remind you of our lives in the low-ends.”

“Right.”

“Look, your current form is halfway decent. So just take some shots and we’ll see if there’s a difference in your accuracy.”

“Okay.”

Lola looked down her sights and fired 5 shots again. This time. The shots alternating between both cans. Lola irked a small smile.

“Better?”

“Better I guess. When I do use my AUG again?”

“When you get even better. You can’t just immediately move to the next gun until you’re confident.”

“But I’m confident.”

“Okay. Then try again.”

Lola immediately tried to shoot again, but her accuracy was worse. She groaned and turned to Curtis. He smirked at her and sighed.

“Now let’s get to work.”

“Fine…”

* * *

Jessica moved around her room pouring various chemicals into different beakers and test tubes. Sherry walked in and was rather surprised.

“Wow Jessica. This is pretty neat.”

“Looks say a lot,” Jessica turned around in a sense of panic, “but I don’t know what I’m doing!”

“What?”

“I know what ingredients I needed, but I don’t know anything about measurements.” She revealed each beaker either being fill over the brim, or not having anything at all.

“Uh…”

“I don’t know if it needs more of one or the other. I’m ripping my hair out trying to figure this out!”

“Jessica,” Sherry grabbed Jessica’s shoulders and shook them, “calm down. You do know that you’re with a scientist right now, right?”

“Yes and no?”

“Just relax and let me figure it out. You already figured out what ingredients we need. I can figure exactly how much the serum needs now. I do the hard part. All you have to do is relax and pray for Curtis.”

“I-I can do that…”

“Alright. Just let me work.”

* * *

Meanwhile, Lola sat down in relief after dropping the AR-15 onto the ground. Curtis chuckled at her and picked up the rifle.

“You’re definitely better than before, but you’re just inconsistent. You seem to get too comfortable while firing and that’s good, but that causes you to get lazy.” Curtis sat next to Lola and placed the rifle between them.

“At least I can hit something.” Lola hugged her legs and looked at Curtis, “Curtis, can I say I’m sorry?”

“I don’t know. Can you?”

“Dude.” Lola pushed Curtis and laughed, “Let me apologize for being stupid earlier.”

“Well, I was acting pretty stupid too.” Curtis looked to the side and mumbled, “I can’t believe I spent so long arguing with you. A 15 year old girl.”

“You know this 15 year old can probably kick your ass, right?”

“Point taken.”

“Still, I’m sorry. I guess I was just trying to act grown in front of everyone.” She shifted her glance to the ground and stared at it, “I just wanted to impress everyone.”

“Everyone? I would expect you to impress your brother, but everyone?”

“Everyone in our group is older than me. My brother is 19, you and Julia are 20, and Will is 31. I’m sitting here still in my pre-teens. I just wanted to show that I was mature.”

“Lola, if I’ve learned anything during our first 2 days as a group, I’ve learned that you’re more than mature.”

“R-Really?”

“Of course. Granted, you’re very violent and I could just be saying this for my own safety, but you’re very mature for someone your age. I guess the only thing you need to work on is letting your emotions get the better of you.”

“My emotions? I think that’s just because of my age. I’m still a pre-teen Curtis.”

“Right.” Curtis pat Lola on her back before standing up, “I’m gonna go see if anyone else needs some help with firearm training. You just relax for the time being.”

“Wait.” Lola grabbed Curtis by his shirt and asked, “Just stay and talk to me a bit. Everyone’s busy and I don’t see another pre-teen around here.”

“So you’d rather talk to someone who is a few months from being an adult?”

“Better than Will and my brother.”

“Well fine.” Curtis sat back down next to Lola and asked, “So you were born into the pandemic, right?”

“Yeah. 5 years into it, I was born, and uh…” Lola paused and hugged her legs even harder, “When my brother was 8 and I was only 4 years old, we were abandoned by our parents. Just when things in the low-end were starting up, we were abandoned by them.”

“Why?”

“My brother told me that they were running away to the high-end. Abandoning us to live a better life.”

“What of them now?”

“We saw them as Whistlers when we first left our low-end.”

“That long as a Whistler?” Curtis thought to himself and nodded, “That makes sense. These Whistlers are still people, so their bodies still function as a human. So they still need food, water, and sleep to survive.”

“How does that explain anything?”

“The lack of wildlife, trees, and other things. They probably use them to survive out here. It’s the only thing that makes sense for them to still be alive after that long.”

“I see…”

“Their belligerent attacks on humans is weird though. Why target humans with malicious intent?”

“I bet it’s something Brian knows. Hell, he probably created them.”

“Yeah.”

* * *

“Sherry!” Jessica shouted, “I found out what those things are.”

“Yeah?”

“They’re still human, but they go through a genetic mutation that alters their basic cognitive thinking skills such as rational thought and speech.”

“That explains why they’re so violent and only communicate in whistles.”

“But get this, they harness the same super-human power, speed, and durability that Brian was looking for in a safe-to-inject serum.” Jessica stood up and walked around the room as she continued speaking, “The reason it takes so many shots from a small-caliber handgun to kill it is simply due to their genetic mutations.”

“Is that it?”

“No. Get this. Some mutations went through multiple stages. The basic stage are the ones we saw in those chambers. However, sometimes, they can go through one of 2 stages.”

“And those stages are?”

“Sherry, can I say what they are before you ask?”

“Right. Sorry.”

“As I was about to say, 1 stage can make them faster, strong, and more belligerent. The 2nd stage, and it’s only happened once, turns them into a massive creature of epic proportions. They turn into the size of a massive boulder, have inhuman strength, along with speed that would be impossible on a creature of its stature.”

“Only once?”

“That’s right. Along with those mutations, they’re also impossible to bring down. I just hope they actually found a way to imprison it. If it got out and is outside the walls…”

“Then Curtis would have to deal with it.”

“Oh god no…”

* * *

Curtis opened his eyes and yawned, “Whew.” He tried to get up, but he noticed weight on his legs. He looked down and saw Lola sleeping on his legs, “Damn it.”

“Seems you two reconciled.” John laughed as he watched the two, “I expected that much, but I’m fine with it. At her age, she’s very impressionable. I guess she’s grown attached to you.”

“Makes me worried that she has a knife and is going to stab me whenever she can.”

“I think you’ll be fine.”

As John said this, the ground shook. Everyone looked around in confusion while Curtis shook Lola awake. The two slowly stood up as the ground shook more.

“Earthquake?” John questioned.

“Definitely not.” Curtis responded, “Too periodic to be an earthquake.”

“Then what is it?”

“Whistler Attack!” One of the soldiers shouted, “There’s a Tower!”

“A Tower?” John mumbled, “The hell is a Tower?”

“I think it’s that.” Will answered while looking through binoculars.

Everyone joined him when an army of Whistlers were advancing on them. In the middle of them was a towering over the others. It stopped and roared. The roar, shaking the ground even more and nearly busting their eardrums.

Curtis glared at the _Tower_ and said, “We’re gonna be in for some hell.”


	9. Combating The Tower/The BCTF

Explosions…

Ringing…

People shouting…

Curtis’s eyes slowly fluttered open to these sounds. He saw a blurry figure who was shaking him. He couldn’t make it out, but he could hear their voice very faintly.

“Curtis…!” Once his vision cleared, he saw Lola shaking him with tears in her eyes, “Wake up!”

“Lola!” Will shouted, “Get down!”

Curtis shifted his vision to his left where he saw the Tower punching around the ground and flailing while it was being pelted by a rain of a bullets and rockets. One of the rockets caused it stumble back and fall. Curtis stared at it until his vision went black.

* * *

45 minutes earlier, insurgents ran around preparing their weapons and equipment while Curtis and his group tried to figure out how they would combat the Tower.

“Curtis,” Julia started, “how the hell are we gonna kill that thing?”

“I don’t think we can.” Curtis responded.

“Then how the hell are we going to even incapacitate it?”

“We won’t.” Curtis stepped forward and loaded his shotgun, “We just need to buy time for everyone to get out of here.”

“That’s right.” Oakland agreed, “We will have to spare some men to take care of this Wave, but the majority will need to move camp and set up somewhere near the mid-end.”

“Just tell us where the camp will be, and we’ll follow.” John responded, “We’ll help out however we can, but as soon as it gets too hot, we’re pulling back with the others.”

“That’s fine. A Tower is impossible to kill unless you have what the BCTF has, so we won’t waste resources trying to kill it.”

“However,” Curtis interrupted, “those Whistlers will be a little annoying. Is there a way we can hold them back?”

“Whistlers are scared of fire.” Lola answered, “I think they know that fire is the definitive way to kill, so they avoid it. If we can create a wall of fire, we can cut those Whistler numbers in half.”

“Then we can focus on the Tower without having to worry about those bugs.” Curtis nodded and turned to Will, “Will, I want you, John, and Oakland to prepare that wall of fire. Lola, Julia, and I will focus on gathering supplies for those pulling back. We converge when the Tower is in our vicinity. Sync up!”

“Synced!” Everyone else yelled.

“Let’s do this.”

* * *

Jessica watched Sherry mix the components together but was distracted by the commotion in the halls. Jessica walked towards the door confused and peaked out. She saw scientists and the remaining BCTF soldiers running up and down the halls.

“What’s wrong out there Jessica?”

“Everyone is in a state of panic. But why?”

“A Tower has been sighted.” A scientist stated, “They’re attacking insurgents, but they’re ordering soldiers to take care of it.”

“Tower?” Jessica muttered.

Sherry jerked her head up and asked, “Did you say Tower?”

“Yes.” The both of them looked at the files on Jessica’s bed and Jessica sprinted to it, “That’s what that other stage is called. They’re called Towers and they’re attacking insurgents.” Jessica swallowed hard and stumbled onto the wall, “It’s attacking…”

“Jessica,” Sherry ran over to Jessica who started to hyperventilate, “calm down. Please calm down.”

“It’s attacking Curtis…”

“Please calm down. He’ll be fine.” Sherry hugged Jessica who was still hyperventilating and shaking in fear, “I know Curtis will be fine.”

“Curtis…” Jessica mumbled in between sharp breaths.

* * *

Curtis looked at the Wave from a pair of binoculars in a tree. The Tower trudged towards them, shoving any Whistler out of the way that were unfortunate enough to be in front of it.

“I say that thing is about 20-something feet.” Curtis called out, “I thought it’d be taller, but I guess from far away, it looks taller than it seems to be.” Curtis climbed down and sighed, “We don’t have to kill it.”

“Curtis,” Lola started, “I’m moving with the people falling back.”

“That’s probably for the best. We don’t need to overextend ourselves.”

“But what about you?”

“I’ll be fine.” Curtis chuckled and turned to Lola, “Weren’t you wanting to kill me just a few hours ago?”

“Y-Yeah…”

“Oh whatever.” Curtis laughed and looked over to Julia, “Julia, John, and I will handle it here.”

“Okay.” Lola grabbed Curtis’s shirt collar and brought him close to her face, “If you die, I’ll kill you.”

“That doesn’t make sense.”

“Just don’t get hurt.”

“I won’t.”

Lola sighed and smiled at him, “Alright. Be safe.” And with that, Lola left.

Julia watched their ordeal and shook her head, _“When did he become such a ladies-man?”_ She crossed her arms and walked over to him, “How did you two make up that quickly?”

“I’m not sure. You think she’s on her period?”

“She’s in that age range.” Julia nudged Curtis and mumbled, “Can you cool it with the women though?”

“Women?” Curtis scoffed, “She’s still a kid. Besides, if then, she’s the only other female I’ve spoken to apart from you and Jessica.” Curtis sighed and looked towards the Wave, “Shouldn’t you be happy for me?”

“I mean.” Julia sighed and shoved Curtis “Whatever.” Julia walked off and ran into John, “What?”

“Real smooth.” John laughed, “Real smooth Julia”

“Oh shut up.” Julia bumped into a John and stormed off.

“Why not just let him live his life?” John mumbled. He shook his head and walked off.

* * *

Several minutes later, Curtis, Will, John, Julia, and Oakland along with other insurgents readied themselves for what they were about to partake in.

“Remember,” Curtis started, “just hold them off long enough for the others to get out of here.”

“Right.”

“Sync up!” Curtis shouted.

“Synced!” They shouted back.

Will stared and picked up a rocket, “Give it time.”

Oakland, Will, and 2 other insurgents prepared rockets to be fired at their trap. Will held his fist up to where everyone could see. He kept his fist balled until they got right over their trap. He pointed his hand forward, causing them to fire their rockets.

What’s the rockets exploded at the ground; a massive firewall erupted. The Tower walked through without an issue, but all but a handful of Whistlers walked through. However, they were caught in a blaze.

Everyone else fired at the Whistlers, killing them almost instantly. They turned to Tower who wasn’t even fazed and was ready to attack them.

“Just buy time!” Oakland shouted, “When we see the flare behind us, that’s when we pull back!”

“Ready you 3?” Curtis called out to Will, Julia, and John. He looked at them either give him a nod or a thumbs up, “Alright. Let’s do this.”

“Create separation between yourselves and the Tower!” Oakland ordered, “Don’t bunch up! You’re more vulnerable that way!”

“Go for its blind spots guys.” Curtis ordered, “This thing is big and I’m assuming it’ll take a second for it to attack. Just attack its blind spots.”

“Wait,” Will started, “I hear BCTF choppers.” Will looked towards the sky to see a large force of BCTF helicopters and Humvees, “Ease up!” Will shouted.

“What are they doing here?” Oakland growled.

“They’re here to take out the Tower.” Curtis answered, “We can’t risk it. Let’s fall back with the others!”

“Right!” Oakland agreed, “Let these BCTF bastards handle this thing!”

However, when they tried to run off, rockets were fired in their direction, preventing them from escaping.

“What the hell?!” Curtis roared, “Those bastards!”

“They want us to get killed in their crossfire.” Will growled, “Brian really wants you dead Curtis.”

“Curtis!” Julia shouted.

Curtis turned around to see the Tower behind him. It winded up a punch and Curtis prepared for impact. The Tower contacted a powerful punch that sent Curtis flying into a tree, causing him to black out.

This is where we started off

* * *

Explosions…

Ringing…

People shouting…

Curtis’s eyes slowly fluttered open to these sounds. He saw a blurry figure who was shaking him. He couldn’t make it out, but he could hear their voice very faintly.

“Curtis…!” Once his vision cleared, he saw Lola shaking him with tears in her eyes, “Wake up!”

“Lola!” Will shouted, “Get down!”

Curtis shifted his vision to his left where he saw the Tower punching around the ground and flailing while it was being pelted by a rain of a bullets and rockets. One of the rockets caused it stumble back and fall. Curtis stared at it until his vision went black once again.

However, just before they were crushed by the Tower, Lola activated Curtis’s hook gauntlets. This latched them onto a tree and Curtis was quick to pull on it so that they could dodge the falling Tower.

Curtis’s ears were still ringing, but he could faintly make out Lola yelling at him.

“Can you hear me Curtis!” She shouted, “Are you there?”

“I-I’m here.” Curtis softly responded. It clicked in him that Lola was there, “Wait, Lola?! The hell are you doing here?!”

“We saw the helicopters.” She answered as she pointed down below them where she saw a massive firefight between the insurgents, BCTF soldiers, and Whistlers. The Tower, now on the ground, was being fired at by the BCTF helicopters, “I came back and saw what happened just before it did happen.”

“Those things hit hard.” Curtis muttered, “I felt a wave of pain fly through my body. My ears rang, everything was blurry…”

“You should’ve paid attention. I told you what would happen if you were killed.”

“Again, that doesn’t make sense, okay?” Curtis looked at the attacking BCTF soldiers and then to the helicopters, “Lola, I’m feeling a little selfish right now. Mind helping me again?”

“Huh?”

“Just hang on real tight.” Curtis kicked off the tree and shot his hook towards one of the helicopters, “Whoo!”

“Curtis!”

The helicopter shook and the pilot sat confused, “The hell?”

“Alpha five-niner,” A voice spoke through the pilot’s radio saying, “you seem to have a bogey attached to you at the moment.”

“I hear ya’ Command. Interrogative: Any idea what’s on me?”

“Not sure five-niner.”

“What is your plan here Curtis?!” Lola shouted.

“Make the pilot panic while taking some potshots.” Curtis answered, “They’ll have no choice but to fire at us. This’ll make them fire at the helicopter as well.”

“Uh, won’t we still be in danger of being shot or crashing with the helicopter?”

“Nah. Just keep holding onto me.”

Curtis fired his shotgun once, gaining the attention of the BCTF soldiers.

“They got a gauntlet!” One of the soldiers shouted.

“Don’t you need to load it again?”

“Yeah.”

“I actually have something that might fair better.” Lola moved a little to show a lever-action rifle slung around her shoulders, “You do know how to pull the lever with one hand.”

“Of course I do.” Curtis slung the shotgun over his shoulder before taking the lever-action rifle. He aimed at the soldiers and fired at them.

“Fire at them!” One of the soldiers ordered.

“Alright, hold on.” Curtis said just as they started to fire at them. He swung forward and used the momentum to launch himself from the helicopter with Lola hanging on tight. He shot his hook at one of the other helicopters while they continued firing at them.

However, the soldiers firing at them were taking down their own helicopters, causing them to crash into the ground.

Curtis laughed the whole time while Lola was scared at first but eventually smiled. He turned around once the last helicopter was shot down and shot his hook at one of the Humvees. He landed on top of one of them and killed the driver and gunner along with its crew.

“Can you drive?” Curtis quickly asked.

“Not really.”

“Then man the gun.” Curits hopped into the driver seat and revved the engine, “Focus on the drivers and gunners of the other Humvees. I think we should take some of these vehicles for ourselves.”

“Alright.” Lola cocked the mounted-machine gun and banged on the roof of the Humvee, “Let’s go!”

Curtis stepped on the gas while Lola fired a hail of bullets towards the other Humvees.

The other soldiers noticed this, but this short second distraction caused them to be gunned down by the insurgents along with the rest of Curtis’s group.

“Oakland,” John called out, “they’re taking out the soldiers manning the Humvees.”

“He’s taking them out so we can take them for ourselves.” Oakland muttered to himself, “Alright. Will, you and some of my men take care of taking those Humvees. We’ll handle everything else here.”

“Right!” Will nodded and ran off with some insurgents.

“I hope he doesn’t get my sister hurt or killed.” John growled, “I’ll kick his ass if he does.”

“You kick his ass, then I’ll kick both of your asses.” Julia shot back.

Meanwhile, Lola kept firing until the machine gun jammed, “Curtis, the gun is jammed.” She tried to unjam, but she didn’t have any luck.

“Then get back down. No use sticking your head out when you can’t fire back.” Curtis kept driving, but while driving, he was the one being targeted specifically.

He tried to dodge the bullets, but one of the bullets managed to shatter the drive side window, cutting his face along with 2 bullets piercing his shoulder.

“Ah!” Curtis shouted in pain, “Shit!” Curtis sharply turned around and drove in the opposite direction of the gunfire.

“Curtis!” Lola shouted, “You’re…”

“Lola,” Curtis groaned, “I need you to turn for me.”

“B-But I…”

“Just turn the wheel. I got everything else.”

Lola, although hesitantly, jumped in the front and started to control the steering wheel for Curtis while he applied pressure to his wound.

“That’s going to get infected.”

“Just focus on steering. We can’t exactly patch it up while we’re driving, right?”

“But Curtis…”

“Just steer!” As Curtis shouted this, he was shot again, this time in his other shoulder and his chest, “Fuck!”

“Curtis!” Lola’s eyes glared at the BCTF soldiers and she turned towards them, “Step on it Curtis!”

“W-What?”

“Just step on it!”

Curtis as she instructed and floored it. The soldiers continued firing, but once they realized what was happening, they tried to dive out the way, but most of them were run over.

Will and the other insurgents stopped in shock. They fumbled around before firing at the BCTF soldiers on the ground.

“Lola…” Curtis stepped on the break while Will and the group of insurgents took out the rest of the BCTF soldiers. He looked at her for a short second before falling onto the wheel.

“C-Curtis?” Lola stared at him before jumping out and opening the driver side, “I need help!” She shouted behind her, “He’s hurt!”

Will looked over at her and sprinted towards them, “Shit…” Will pulled Curtis out of the Humvee and shouted to one of the insurgents and said, “Get these Humvees back to camp!”

“Will, is he going to be okay?”

“He’s lost a lot of blood since his bullet wounds were done by high-caliber rounds, but he can manage.”

“Are you sure?”

“Curtis is tough.” Will commented, “He’ll bounce back by the end of the week.”

“He wanted to be in the mid-end before the end of the week.” Lola quietly muttered, “Now this is going to hold him back.”

“We’ll probably need to watch him to prevent him pushing himself too much.”

“I understand. I’m sure Julia and I will make sure he doesn’t push himself too hard.”

“I mean, these Humvees are going to make traveling easier. Plus, I know for sure Brian is predicting a large-scale battle at the mid-end. So he’s going to prepare everything he has, so we have to do the same.”

“What about our plan?”

“Holding out like that will only do more damage than good. That battle at the mid-end will have to be a pure bloody, unending gun battle.”

“That’s scary to think about.”

“I don’ trust my BCTF brethren anymore.” Will growled, “Firing at their own just to take out one target.” Will looked at his BCTF patch and tore it off, “I’m not affiliated with those bastards.” He tossed it the ground and shook his head, “Let’s focus on getting Curtis to Jessica.”

“Right…”


	10. The Aftermath

That next day, Jessica overheard even more panic outside her room. Sherry rushed in just as panicked, but slightly happy.

“Sherry,” Jessica started, “what’s going on now?”

“BCTF soldiers fighting the Tower were killed.”

“Killed?”

“They were fighting insurgents along with the infected.” Sherry stared at Jessica whose eyes were wide, “Only one insurgent was injured in the fight.”

“Is it…”

“Rumors say that Curtis was the injured, but he was not KIA.”

“But he was still hurt!”

“Jessica…”

“He’s out there risking his life just because I wanted to be selfish and have him get me out of here. He’s getting himself hurt and nearly killed just to save me…”

“Jessica, regardless of what you would try to do to dissuade him, he’ll still fight tooth and nail to save you. He loves you Jessica.”

Jessica stiffened up and stuttered, “Y-You really think s-so?”

“There’s no doubt in my mind that Curtis loves you.”

“Hehe…”

* * *

At the insurgent camp, Lola sat next to Curtis, who was laying down sleeping while covered in gauze. She started to caress his forehead, but Julia interrupted her.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m just trying to tend to him Julia.”

“I’ll do that. You head on out and help John with one of the Humvees.”

“But I can help him. I’ve tended to bullet wounds before.”

“But your brother is calling for your help. I can handle him just fine. I’ve taken care of him when he’s gotten hurt before.”

“Oh, well alright.” Lola walked off leaving Julia alone with Curtis.

Julia slowly sat next to Curtis and noticed heavy sweating coming from his forehead. She looked around for a towel and sighed.

“No towel.” Julia sighed and looked around while Curtis sweat more and more. She eventually turned to her shirt and sighed, “Oh well.” Julia slowly took her shirt off and dabbed the sweat off his forehead, “I really hope nobody sees this and I hope he doesn’t wake up like this.”

Lola walked outside to see John working on one of the Humvees, “Julia said you needed help big bro?”

“No. I didn’t tell her that.” John crawled from under the Humvee and sighed, “Were you with Curtis?”

“Yeah. Why do you ask?”

“Geez that woman.” John laughed, “That girl is trying to keep that man to herself.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Well, you know how Curtis is trying to get to the high end so he can get to Jessica, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, Julia doesn’t want that. She wants him to herself.”

“But I thought they were best friends. Wouldn’t she support who he wants to be with?”

“Yeah, but she’s obsessed with him.” John stood up and wiped some oil from his brow, “So much so that she probably doesn’t want other females to be around him.”

“That’s stupid. I don’t think of that idiot like that.”

“You might not think that, but she probably does.”

“Mmm…” Lola groaned and quickly turned around to storm off towards the tent that Curtis was in.

“I’m probably gonna get my ass kicked by both of those girls.”

Lola stormed in and her eyes widened when she saw Julia wiping Curtis off shirtless. Her mouth trembled while Julia froze wiping his back.

“L-Lola!”

“What are you doing?!” Lola shouted, causing everyone outside to jump.

Will stopped Oakland from checking on what happened and said, “Kids being kids.”

“Geez.” Oakland rubbed the back of his head and chuckled, “Kids nowadays…”

Lola glared at Julia and stomped over to them. She grabbed Curtis and tugged him over to her.

“You lied to get me away from him.”

“No I didn’t.” Julia grabbed Curtis’s other arm and glared at Lola, “I lied to you so I could take care of him the right way!” Julia pulled Curtis back towards her which sent a wave of pain into Curtis.

“What right way?! You just have to make sure his wound is clean, he isn’t catching a fever, and that he isn’t dead!” Lola pulled back, sending even more pain into Curtis.

“Girls…”

“Let him go!” Julia yelled, “You’re hurting him!” Julia pulled back and this started a tug-o’-war for Curtis.

“No!” Lola shouted back, “You’re hurting him!”

Curtis growled and shouted, “Let go!”

The two looked at him and noticed that the gauze covering his wounds were stained heavily red and leaking blood.

“You two,” Curtis groaned, “are idiots…” Curtis’s face grew pale before he fell forward.

The girls stared at him before yelling, “Help!”

* * *

Moments later, the girls stood in front of Will who crossed his arms in disappointment. An insurgent whispered something to him, and he nodded.

“You’re lucky that gauze stopped some of the major bleeding. Any longer though and that gauze would’ve burst open and he would’ve bled out.”

“He’s okay now though, right?” Julia quickly asked.

“He is. He’s stable now. He also specifically told us not to let the both of you in the tent.”

“What? Why?!”

“Well for starters, he doesn’t want his arms ripped off. Secondly, a few field medics from nearby insurgent camps came here and are checking on our wounded. So he won’t need any tending to by the two of you.”

“But those medics don’t know how to take care of him!”

“Hey.” Behind Will, an insurgent carrying a medical bag asked, “Who exactly is Curtis in here?”

“I gotta go. They need help.”

* * *

Meanwhile in the high end, Jessica paid attention to what was being said outside her room. Sherry listened too despite her attention being drawn to the serum she was attempting to make.

“Sherry,” Jessica started, “they said the Tower was neutralized, but the BCTF soldiers sent to take it out were killed. There vehicles were also either destroyed or stolen by insurgents.”

“That means they tried to kill the insurgents while fighting that Tower.”

“I also hear that several insurgents were injured rather than the just one high-value target.” Jessica’s voice shook as she added, “No insurgents were killed, but a good number of them were injured.”

“That’s better news than what you would’ve thought.”

“I’m worried about him being hurt, but the fact that these insurgents took out a platoon of BCTF soldiers is kinda scary.”

“You’re right. Unless they sent a group of recruits, then knowing that they took out a platoon of them is still a little awe inspiring.”

“This means we have to work just as hard.” Jessica ran over to Sherry and stared at her with a look of determination, “We have to give it our all to our end of the serum deal.”

“Right. I think Curtis has a good chance to make it here. I know for sure.”

Curtis eventually stepped out of the tent while ringing his neck. He was confronted by both Julia and Lola. He sighed and walked past him.

“If you’re going to pull my arms out of their sockets, then I highly suggest the both of you step away from me now.”

“Curtis,” Julia started, “we just wanted to say that we were sorry.”

“I was just worried that you weren’t going to make it.” Lola added.

“Some stupid, low-caliber bullets won’t be enough to do me in. I’ve suffered worse in the low-end.

“How could you suffer worse?” Julia demanded, “What jobs did you have to work to be used to mortal wounds?”

“Jobs no sane person should endure.”

“What did you work?” Lola probed.

“Multiple jobs for one of Brian’s slave owners in our low-end.”

“Wait what?!” Julia shouted, “Why the hell would you work her?!”

“Wait.” Lola waved her hands and asked, “Slave owners? The hell are you talking about?”

“It’s something that only a few low-ends have. They’re not really slave owners, but the people who have one of these people call them slave owners.”

“Why?”

“Grueling work hours with poor working conditions.” Julia answered, “Countless people die within their first week. If you make it past that first day then this owner’s poor treatment of workers will get to you.”

“So those lashes on his back are-?”

“Are a result of this particular slave owner’s ‘punishments’, but they vary based on how the person is feeling. Sometimes they try to mentally break you. Either through physical torture or mental instability. The one in our home low-end was a woman.”

Julia thought for a short second and her eyes widened, “Curtis, did that woman rape you?”

“That’s none of your business.” He answered.

“She did! Didn’t she?!”

“Raped?” Lola uttered, “There’s no way someone would let that happen.”

“It’s either that or death.” Curtis solemnly responded, “It was either let her have her way with me or leave my family to die along with me.”

“You could’ve worked anywhere else. Anywhere else that didn’t involve that she-devil!”

“I had no other choice!” Curtis snapped, “My family can barely get by with what my dad makes. I had to take up the hardest, most insane job I could possibly take in order to provide for all of them. Yeah her methods are inhumane and downright heinous, but she pays me specifically extremely well. It’s enough to get my family by.”

“I just can’t…” Julia stared at the ground and balled her fist furiously, “I can’t believe I never saw this after your first day. I should’ve seen this. I’m your best friend.”

“Nothing you would’ve said wouldn’t have done anything.” Curtis faced the two girls and sighed, “Look, that’s in the past. I doubt that woman would even notice that I was gone.”

* * *

In Curtis’s home low-end, a woman stood outside on her balcony while a younger woman walked in behind her wielding a rifle.

“Ma’am…” She spoke.

“I heard.” The other woman responded, “It seems Curtis has made it closer to the mid-end.”

“What are your orders?”

“I’ll head there personally, but I won’t engage. This is merely a reconnaissance for when we cut him off from the high-end.”

“Are you so sure that he’ll reach the high-end?”

“Brian is in panic mode at the moment. Especially after Curtis and a group of insurgents took out a Tower, BCTF soldiers, and a Wave without sustaining a single casualty. So this is resulting him in scattering his soldiers around each sanctuary, but they hold no terrain advantage.”

“So what’s your plan?”

“We’ll cut him off from the mid-end and take him out then.”

“Are you so sure we can take him out?”

“We’ll hit him when he least expects it.” The woman smirked and hugged herself, “Besides, I’m not killing him. I simply miss my plaything. I can’t live without him.” The woman quickly turned around and ordered, “Prepare our forces to move when they take that mid-end.”

“As you wish ma’am.”

“Also, prepare my backup plaything.”

“As you wish ma’am.”


	11. Whistlers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slight problem with the next chapter of those reading my DDLC Fanfic Series. Since my chapters are edited on Wattpad (so I can edit chapters when I'm on the go), I can't edit them as of right now due to chapter having an issue with logging back in. This story however, is saved on my hard drive through Microsoft Windows, so I can mess with this as much as I can. So enjoy this in the mean time until the issue is resolved. I still have 3 chapters for this story that I had been meaning to upload.

Curtis walked by insurgents working on the Humvees and noticed Will standing off to the side of everyone. He walked over to him and cleared his throat.

“Hm?” Will turned to him and sighed, “Hey Curtis.”

“What’s on your mind?”

“I trusted my own soldiers with my life. Through training and defending our low-end, I trusted them with all my life. To see them fire at their own without hesitation…”

“Will, they were probably new recruits.”

“New recruits don’t take the helm of assaults like that. Especially while fighting a Tower.” Curtis looked off to the side while Will continued, “I guess as someone who watches a low-end, nothing much like this is seen much.”

“Looks like a BCTF soldiers can’t even escape the curse of class manipulation.” Curtis turned to everyone else and sighed, “So much untapped talent being wasted away in a low-end. Brian is either blind to real talent, or he’s doing this for a reason.”

* * *

Meanwhile, Jessica walked around the halls and noticed that there was a lack of staff. She wandered confused and noticed that the building was rather empty. She made her back to her room to see Sherry still working on the serum.

“Bring back breakfast Jessica?”

“The building is empty?”

“What?”

“Well, not completely empty, but there there’s only a handful of people left. AKA, the scientists.” Jessica sat on her bed confused as she read the files, “Is it that bad to where they have to draft everyone that isn’t me or a scientist.”

“Well, Curtis and the insurgents did take out a group of BCTF soldiers without suffering any deaths along with taking down a Tower and a Wave. The insurgents have a wave of momentum heading towards that mid-end. Brian is scared and he’s willing to throw everything he has at Curtis to stop him. Even if it means taking people who have zero combat training and thrusting them into battle.”

Jessica looked up at Sherry from the folder and asked, “I feel like you’re not telling me everything you know about these Whistlers. I keep hearing Towers, Waves, and other things. These folders don’t say much. So I need to know. What else are _you_ hiding from me.”

* * *

Back at the insurgent camp, Julia stared at Curtis who sat in a tree watching the mid-end and its high activity. He smirked and stood up. He climbed down and was met with Julia staring at him.

“What’s wrong?” Before she could answer, he interrupted saying, “Is it because of me working for that woman?”

“Yes!” She shouted, “I just can’t stand to think that you worked for that woman. Those lashes. The times you went home bloodied and covered in sweat. I should’ve suspected something, but I didn’t.”

“Julia. Quit beating yourself up over that.” Curtis placed his hand on her shoulder and squeezed it, “I did it to help my family. I had no other choice.”

“But I…”

“You wouldn’t have made a difference in my choice. I made the choice and I stuck to it in order to support my family.” He started to walk off, but said, “But come after we take our Brian, people won’t have to suffer like that anymore.”

“Do you think Jessica will feel the same way.” Julia asked almost hesitantly, “She is his wife.”

“The wife of someone she doesn’t even love.” Curtis quickly answered, “When you’re with her, she acts as if she isn’t even someone’s wife. It’s obvious as day that she wants to get away from him.”

“But what if-.”

“What if what Julia?” Curtis growled, “What are you trying to say? Get to the point.”

“I’m just saying that maybe Jessica might be something that's too good to be true.” Julia stared at Curtis who stood stone-still, “Curtis?”

“If you don’t want me to be with, you could just say so. You don’t have to beat around the bush.”

“I-I wasn’t saying that!”

“You really think I didn’t hear you a few days ago?” Curtis probed, “You said you would do everything in your power to win me over Jessica so that I would stop pursuing her.”

“Y-You heard?”

“I definitely heard you. I was still in that tree when you said. I’m not deaf.” Curtis turned around and stepped up to Julia. He loomed over her and shot a demonic glare at her, “I don’t care what you or anyone else says. I’m getting to Jessica. Through you if I have to.” Curtis turned back around and walked off.

Julia stared at him and quickly shifted her glance to the ground, “What was I thinking.” She said to herself, “How could I try and ruin something my best friend needs.” She looked back up at him and sighed, “I love him, that’s for sure, but if he’s this determined to get her…”

* * *

In the high-end Jessica sat in front of Sherry who explained to her about the Whistlers. She stared at Jessica and sighed.

“The Whistlers, as you’ve seen and heard, can mutate into different, more powerful versions of their baseselves. Their base mutation gives them super-human strength, speed, and endurance. They’re also impervious to bladed weapons due to their blubber-like skin. So the only efficient way is with bullets and fire.”

“Fire?”

“When a Whistler is killed, you must burn it in order to effectively kill it as a Whistler has regenerative abilities.”

“Regenerative? Is that the reason those scientists burned that test Whistler after killing it?”

“That’s right.” Sherry answered, “However, their blubber-like body can also ward off bullets. Depending on the caliber, some bullets will just sink into their skin without force.”

“The pistol the scientists used. What caliber was that?”

“A modified Colt M1911. It’s modified to take anti-personal rounds. Rounds that are about equal in power with a .50AE without the megakick from a normal high-caliber handgun.”

“But M1911’s usually can’t fire quickly like that.”

“Again, it’s modified Jessica.” Sherry explained, “As for their mutations, a Tower is a massive Whistler towering between 20-30 feet tall or 6-9 meters.”

“That tall?”

“Yes, but they still move relatively fast due to their massive strides. Also, as is expected, they are extremely strong. Being able to lift BCTF Humvees with ease and even uproot trees as if they were just coatracks.”

“And the Insurgents took one out along with a platoon of BCTF soldiers, correct?”

“That’s right.”

“That’s scary to think about. Not just the Tower, but with the power of the Insurgents.”

“With Curtis with them, I’m sure they won’t have any problems.”

“You know, the more you put your faith in him, them more I think you’ve taken a liking to him.”

“W-What?”

“Yeah. Of course, I’ve professed my love for him countless times, and I don’t think that love will ever waiver, but you Sherry. The more we talk about him, the more I see you falling for him.”

“I-I…”

“Yay!” Jessica cheered.

“Huh?”

“You’ve always made me blush! Now I’ve made you blush!”

“Geez Jessica. Can we continue with this Whistler lesson please?”

“Okay but mind you that Curtis is mine.” Jessica winked.

“Whatever…”

* * *

At the Insurgent Camp, John walked in on Curtis messing with his gauze. He laughed and joined him.

“You shouldn’t me messing with your gauze.”

“I normally never used gauze. You know gauze sure as hell a luxury in the low-ends.”

“I know.” John walked over to him and tightened the gauze, “But you still need to keep it on for a few days.”

“Just don’t make it too tight.” Just as Curtis said this, John pulled tightly, “Hey!”

“Sorry.”

Will walked in and watched the two, “What are you two doing?”

“Trying to fix his gauze.” John answered, “He was messing with it and loosened it.”

“Ah come on Curtis.”

“Hey!” Curtis shouted as Will helped John, “It doesn’t take two people to do this!”

“Lola,” Julia started, “do you think we should apologize to Curtis? I know I do.”

“Probably.” Lola quietly answered, “I don’t know what’s gotten over me the last few days. At first, I wanted to strangle him and blast a hole into his stupid head. Now,” Lola paused and said, “I still wanna strangle him, but more like a playful strangle.”

“Then let’s go. I’m sure he’ll feel better if we apologize.”

“Yeah.”

The two of them walked into Curtis’s tent to see him shirtless and surrounded by John and Will. The 3 of them turned to Julia and Lola who were visibly confused, shocked, and speechless.

“Wait!” Curtis shouted, “It’s not what it looks like!”

“We understand if you 3 need alone time.” Julia slowly responded, “Please take your time and we’ll get back to you soon.”

“Yeah.” Lola agreed as she looked at her brother, “I didn’t even know you rolled that way John.”

“Huh?” John stared at her confusingly while the two backed away, “What does she mean?”

“Just get off!” Curtis pushed the two of them off of him, “Shit.” Curtis wringed his neck and sighed, “I have to talk to them. Give me a moment.” Curtis walked out while his shirt still remained on the ground.

“Wait! Your shirt!”

Curtis didn’t listen and continued walking outside. He looked around for the two girls and noticed them walking towards the outside of the camp. Curtis ran over to them and called out for them.

“Hey!” He shouted, “Come on!” The two of them stopped and turned to Curtis, “Look,” Curtis started, “I’m sorry for what I said earlier.”

“Why are you apologizing?” Lola started, “It should be us apologizing.”

“But the things I said are things I said because I was frustrated, and I was angry at Julia.” Curtis looked at Julia, “Not only do my wounds prolong the suffering Jessica has to go through, but Julia attempted to force me away from Jessica.”

“I wanna apologize for that.” Julia quickly interrupted, “I was just clinging onto something that I’ve been feeling for years. I never once thought about how you felt.”

“I made my choice to save her because of what she has been able to do.” Curtis crossed his arms and shook his head, “I’ve never felt this way about anyone, and nobody has ever been able to make me leave my comfort zone.”

“So she was really that great?” Lola asked, “She must be if you feel this strongly about her.”

“Yeah.” Curtis quietly responded, “But now I have a new goal.” Curtis looked at the mid-end in front of him and popped his neck, “Brian has made people outside mid and high-ends suffer. It’s about time he gets what he deserves.”

“So the thing with my brother and Will...” Lola chuckled.

“That wasn’t anything!”


	12. Bonding Time/More Than Meets The Eye

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Curtis and Lola decide to have a little R&R after their training session. All while Sherry reveals a little more to the Whistler Experiments that she's been hiding along with a dark secret within the confines of their own high-end.

After taking a week to recover, Curtis was already back up and better than before. He placed his shotgun around himself, and the lever-rifle Lola gave him around his waist. He ringed his arms while placing his chest-rig back on. He slid some gloves onto his hand and cracked his knuckles.

“Looking cool I see.” Lola commented behind him, “But it’s kinda hard for people to see if you’re alone.”

“How long were you there?” Curtis asked while walking over to her, “From when I started dressing up or way before that?”

“Before all that.”

“I would say that’s creepy, but I guess there’s nothing better to do while outside the walls.” Curtis looked at Lola hold her hand out and he asked, “Yes?”

“Your shotgun.”

“What about it?”

“Let me see it.” Reluctantly, Curtis handed her his shotgun, “Don’t be so apprehensive. I’m not gonna shoot you.” Lola walked past her and took out a short saber, “Alright, so I can fuse this saber to the shotgun. It’s sturdier and sharper.”

“Will it work on Whistlers?”

“Definitely not, but it can have effect on BCTF soldiers. Maybe slice their arms or whatever body parts that aren’t protected.”

“Okay.”

“As for that lever-rifle, I know a guy in the mid-end who is a gunsmith. He moved from our low-end last year and he was the best damn gunsmith I know.”

“How do you know people like that?”

“When you have no one to really look up to; you tend to look towards other things, and they have impressions on you.”

“You haven’t deal with sketchy people, have you? You’re young and naïve. Wouldn’t people think you’re a prime target for stuff like that?”

“When they stare down the barrel of a rifle, I think they get the idea that I’m not to be fucked with.”

“Yeah. I think I learned that the hard way.” Curtis knelt next to Lola and looked at what she was doing, “Did this gunsmith teach you some things before he left the low-end?”

“She.”

“Huh?”

“It was a woman. She was taught by her dad before he passed, and she passed some of her knowledge on to me.”

“So it’s like a family to apprentice type of thing?”

“Yup.”

“So you worked for her before she moved to the mid-end?”

“That’s right. Before she moved, she taught me some basics to modifying a gun. I won’t ever be as good as her, but she was one helluva gunsmith.”

“What about John?”

“John worked with someone who worked with medicinal herbs. So he learned how to combine some to make some medicinal rubs and such. He also knows the basics to first-aid.”

“Basics as in?”

“He’s better than the field medics that are in the Insurgency.” Lola huffed and nodded before turning to John, “Here ya’ go. It’s perfect for all your BCTF stabbing needs.”

“Thanks Lola.” Curtis stood up and took the shotgun, “Do you want anything for doing this?”

“Hm?” Lola thought for a second and smiled while tilting her head forward, “Head pats.”

“What?”

“I never knew how these felt like. I wanna try it out.”

“Okay?” Curtis placed his hand on Lola and softly rubbed her head, “I don’t see the point in this?”

“Honestly, it’s kinda soothing.” Lola smiled and sighed, “But I think this would be better if we were relaxing and I was relaxing on your lap.”

“Don’t get any weird ideas.”

“I’m not. I’m gonna try with John to see if he’s up for it.” Lola smirked and said, “Then I’ll get the weird ideas.”

“Nope. Nuh-uh. Too young.”

“Too young?”

“You’re 15 Lola. I’m 20. If I remember from the Old Society, 18 was the ‘legal’ age limit.”

“What? That’s stupid. In our current society, people have sex all over by the time they’re 14. Why 18?”

“I’m not sure. The Old Society is weird.”

“You said it.”

* * *

Jessica sat on her balcony asleep and smiled the whole time. Her legs quivered and her lips tremored while she brought her hands in between her legs. She squirmed in her chair while Sherry watched.

Sherry held her phone out while laughing, “Hey Jessica.” She called out.

“Hm…?” Jessica’s eyes slowly fluttered open and she saw Sherry, “Sherry? You’re having sex with Curtis too?”

“I think you have all of his attention.” Sherry teased.

After a short second, Jessica’s eyes shot open while she looked at herself. Jessica’s face turned a dark red while she covered her face.

“I wonder how Curtis will react when I show him this video.”

“N-No!” Jessica tried to grab the phone, but Sherry held it over her head, “Mmm. Why do I have to be short?!”

“Wait a sec Jessica.” Sherry laughed, “I think I perfected the serum.”

“Huh?” Jessica froze and stared at Sherry, “You perfected it?”

“It took many restless nights over this last week, but I was finally able to make one dose.”

“One dose?”

“Ran out of materials to make more than one. The rest of would be deep within the confines of these buildings.”

“Okay? Why not go into the confines?”

“There’s more I’ve been hiding from you Jessica.”

“What?”

* * *

Meanwhile, the Humvees stolen from the BCTF lined up fully repaired and ready to move. John stared at each Humvee and smiled proudly.

“Nice.” He turned towards Curtis saying, “These things are ready to charge whenever we need ‘em to.”

“We’ll need an extra day for the soldiers to regather their bearings.” Curtis started, “We can focus on what we’ll do after we take the mid-end.”

“Wouldn’t it be to kill Brian?” Will answered, “I feel like that’s our main objective right?”

“We can’t kill him just yet.” Curtis responded, “If we kill him now, another person will take his place and that person will be able to do whatever they want to Jessica.”

“So what do we do?” Julia wondered.

“We force him back.” Curtis quickly answered, “Force him back to New Capitol City, then we take him and everything he’s built up out.”

“New Capitol City?” Lola mouthed, “Are you sure we’ll be able to take New Capitol City down? I heard that place was built like a fortress.”

“The same could be said about other high-ends. New Capitol City is where our final fight with Brian will be.” Curtis ringed his wrists and walked over to one of the Humvees, “Taking just one mid-end will make him shit his pants, but he’ll come back. He knows what my target is and he knows that once he loses the mid-end; he won’t have the necessary defenses to defend the high-end Jessica is in.”

“So how are we going to take this mid-end?”

“Nothing can demoralize an army and its commander more than a blitzkrieg.” Will answered, “Fast, brutal attack without letting up. Attacking when they don’t know it while doing it at blazing speeds.”

“Catching them off-guard with a fierce attack.” John added, “The only problem with a blitzkrieg is that we don’t have the weapons or vehicles to do a full-on assault like that.”

“And what about the distraction for Curtis to charge in undetected?” Lola wondered, “Why change our strategy now?”

“He’s already demoralized after taking out a BCTF squad.” Will explained, “Which means his soldiers there will feel that demoralization.”

“Not to mention that other insurgent groups are attacking surrounding mid-ends too.” Curtis nodded and smirked, “He’ll be at his wits-end when we attack. Once we drive him away from the mid-end, we push as fast as we can towards the high-end and attack him while he’s down.”

“Normally, those types of morals would be frowned upon in the Old Society.” Will added, “But in times like this, social and ethical morals no longer hold any substance.”

“We move at dawn then.” Curtis started, “Tomorrow, the mid-end will be ours and we’ll be one step closer to saving Jessica.”

“Right!”

* * *

Jessica paced in front of Sherry who stood with one vile they had, “I’m sorry Jessica.”

“So more of those Whistlers are in the confines of our building here?”

“Yes. In the bowels of the building, there are holding cages where they are kept. They’re used to experiment on when they need more information on them.”

“So how many are being housed here?”

“I don’t know. I lost count after 30-thousand.”

“Th-Thousand?” Jessica stuttered, “That many people were turned into those things?”

“That’s only in this one building. Multiple high-ends have a supply of Whistlers for experimentation.”

“Other high-ends too?” Jessica stepped back outside onto the balcony and asked, “This doesn’t even include what’s outside these walls.” Jessica slumped back onto her chair and instantly stood up, “It’s still wet.”

“It’s why we can’t go in the confines. We don’t have the proper equipment to traverse the confines.”

“Aren’t they locked up?” Jessica asked while wiping some liquid off her back, “I’m sure we can just get in and get out.”

“It’s the substance. It’s made from a certain Whistler and I don’t want to waste time trying to find that specific Whistler.”

“One vial…” Jessica grabbed the vial from Sherry and observed it, “We don’t even know if it works the way we hope. I don’t want to give it to Curtis if it might turn him into one of those things.”

“I think I can make a duplicate, but it’ll take a few days.”

“Even if we get a duplicate, we won’t know if it actually works the way we want it to.”

“We’ll figure it out by then. Just have faith Jessica.”

“You say that a lot.”

“Because faith is all we have.”

“Yeah…”


	13. The Attack On The Mid-End Pt.1

Once night passed, the insurgent army moved toward the mid-end. Accompanying them were Julia, Will, and John. Their initial attack had 1,500 soldiers charging first. Curtis and Lola laid back with the reserve force that housed another thousand insurgents.

Curtis sat on the hood of one their Humvees and rest his head on one of his hands, “Our first big fight.” He commented, “People will die today.” He turned to Lola who looked at him back, “Even one of us.”

“Don’t say that.”

“Not everything goes to plan in an assault like this.” Curtis turned his attention to the main army ahead of them and sighed, “One of us will die. I just don’t know who.”

Lola walked up to Curtis and stared at his hand, “Curtis,” she moved to take his hand, but stopped herself beforehand, “are you thinking it’s you?”

“I’m hoping it’s not. If it is, Julia and Will would’ve done all this for nothing.”

“Hey.” Lola stood in front of Curtis and dug the stock of her AUG into Curtis’s chest, “I won’t take this negativity from you. Cheer up. We’re gonna be able to beat the hell out of Brian here and then do it again later.”

Curtis stared at Lola and chuckled, “Yeah.” Curtis hopped off the Humvee and pat her head, “Let’s get ready for our signal.”

“Yeah!”

* * *

Meanwhile, outside the mid-end, Will rode on one of the Humvees with Julia while John rode in another. Will looked at the mid-end walls as it rose higher.

Will grabbed a radio and said, “Alright! You already know the drill. Hammer that wall with everything you can! Buy time until we send the signal!”

“Do you think we’ll be able to take this place?” Julia asked from behind him, “We took out a small group, but I don’t know.”

“Brian’s army is demoralized for a lot of reasons. We’ll be able to take the mid-end, but it might take some time.”

“Someone in our group is gonna die.” Julia commented, “I just feel it.”

“I feel it too.” Will agreed, “Let’s just get this attack going.”

A loud whistling could be heard outside making Julia asked, “Are there Whistlers outside?”

“No that’s-.” Before Will could finish, a missile took out one of the Humvees making Will yell, “Barrage!”

Clusters of missiles collided with the ground destroying whatever soldier unfortunate enough to be in its blast radius. A missile blew up in front of them, flipping them backwards.

Curtis watched on and shook his head, “We waited too long.” He growled under his breath, “We need to push now.”

“We have to wait for the signal Curtis.” Lola grabbed Curtis by his shirt and pulled him back, “Brian probably thinks he can just barrage them and be done with it. He’s in panic mode.”

“I hope you’re right.”

* * *

Moments later, Julia’s vision laid blurry while the deafening explosions and gunfire ruined her hearing. She stared at her hands that were charred and bloody. She looked around as her vision stabilized and noticed 2 dead insurgents.

“Julia!” Will shouted. He ripped the door off the Humvee and looked inside, “Julia!”

Julia looked at Will and down again, “Are we dead?”

“Far from it.” Will held his hand out and said, “We’re already in the fight. No use giving up now.”

Julia grabbed it and was pulled out by Will. He quickly made her duck behind the Humvee and handed her a rifle.

“I don’t think your pistols have much range on ‘em.” He peaked out and said, “Just keep your head down and fire when you have a chance. We’re giving this a few minutes before we give the signal.”

“Alright.”

* * *

Jessica stared out from the balcony and closed her eyes. She tilted her head down and clasped her hand together. She mumbled to herself just as Sherry joined her.

“What are you doing Jessica?”

“They started.”

“Huh?”

“The insurgents started their organized attacks on the mid-ends.”

“How can you tell?”

“You can see the distant smoke clouds to the north, east, and west of our high-end here. They’re organized. They’re trying to use a diversion in order to divert attention from the one Brian is in.”

“But I doubt they have the numbers and firepower to actually fight that way, right?”

“They don’t, but I believe in the insurgents and Curtis.”

“Despite one of them trying to rape and murder you?”

“I don’t think all of them are like that. If Curtis trusts them, then I should trust them too.”

“That’s quite the loyalty you have to Curtis despite only meeting him once.” Sherry smiled and said, “I’m glad you’re this loyal to the right man.”

“You’ve haven’t properly met him Sherry. How sure are you that he’s a good man?”

“No reason in particular.” Sherry turned around and walked out, “I’ll be working on duplicating the serum a little longer.”

“Alright. I’ll just keep watch here.”

Sherry nodded and made her way. While walking away, flashes of Curtis chained to a wall filled her mind. She back up against the wall and tugged on her arm. Flashes of a beaten down Curtis filled her mind more along with her looking down at him holding a sympathetic face.

“I can’t let her know about that. Not a chance.”

* * *

Will fired from his cover before ducking back down. He tried to fire again, but his gun jammed and was shot out of his hand.

“Damn it…”

“Will!” Oakland shouted, “We need to launch the signal!”

“Right!” Will shouted, “Flares out!” He took out a flare gun, along with other insurgents, “Fire!” They all shot their flare guns to where Curtis could see them.

“Alright!” Curtis banged on the Humvees and shouted, “Let’s roll!” Curtis turned to Lola and smiled, “Hop on Lola.” Lola hopped on his back while he ringed his wrists, “Hang on!”

Once the Humvees were far ahead of them, Curtis kicked the dirt underneath him before making his way towards the mid-end with his gauntlets and Lola on his back.

The defending BCTF forces fired haphazardly. One of the soldiers noticed the dust being kicked up behind the main force and his eyes widened.

Other BCTF soldiers noticed too as one yelled, “Assault Team! Take out their frontline!”

The walls of the mid-end opened up revealing large ramps. Charging down those ramps were countless BCTF soldiers were being gunned down or blown to pieces while charging.

The ones that did get buy got into scuffles with Insurgents. Will shoulder charged a soldier before grabbing their weapon and firing into them.

Julia slid underneath one and fired swift shots from her handguns at them. She holstered them and fired the rifle Will gave her at 3 other soldiers. Julia turned towards their back up with Curtis moving through the air with his grappling hooks.

“I hope he lands the shot.” Julia muttered.

“He’ll have to be precise. He has one shot at it.”

“I have to drop you off Lola!”

“Where?!”

“By Julia and Will!” Curtis landed next to Julia and Will to place Lola down, “Remember when to charge in.”

“I know.” Curtis handed her the lever-rifle and she cocked it, “I’ll cover you.”

“Wish me luck.” Curtis sprinted forward after shoulder charging two BCTF soldiers.

He saw multiple shells falling towards him. He shot his hooks out towards the wall periodically to give him slight boosts. All while dodging bullets and explosive shells that were being shot at him. Curtis eventually got right above the wall. He tossed something onto the wall and as it landed he took a shot

The device he threw exploded, opening a large hole in the wall itself.

The soldiers looked up at him while he remained in the hair just a bit longer. He took them out one by one while they panicked to shoot him. He knocked some to the ground while firing at others. He took out a grenade and unpinned it.

“5…” He started counting while shooting at more BCTF soldiers, “4…” He was tackled to the ground, dropping the grenade in the process, “3…” He continued counting even while wrestling with the soldier that tackled him to the ground, “2…” He shoved the butt of his shotgun at soldier, causing them to stumble back, “1…” Curtis grabbed the grenade and shoved into the hands of the soldier and kicked him into his allies, “Boom.” The grenade exploded, killing or severely injuring the ones in the blast radius.

Curtis looked at the other soldiers before they ran off the wall. Curtis scoffed and looked at the others on the wall. He smirked and took out a device with a sharp end. He stuck into the wall and was about to press a button on top of it, but he noticed a Wave in the distance.

He stared at it and shouted, “Wave incoming!”

Insurgents and BCTF soldiers turned towards the wave that were sprinting towards them.

“Gotta keep the rest of the wall up.” Curtis grabbed the device he stabbed into the wall and put it away, “Go to Plan B!”

Insurgents and BCTF soldiers fought each to get onto the wall via the ramps, but the Whistlers closed in fast, attacking and killing Insurgents and BCTF too slow to make it to the wall.

Lola made it halfway up the ramp before turning around to see Whistlers ripping Insurgents and BCTF soldiers to pieces. She watched and froze in fear. She failed to see a BCTF soldier attempting to grab her. She turned at the last second to see him have his brains blown out and fall back to the ground below them.

She turned to see Julia ushering her to push up the ramp. Lola took a deep breath and ran up.

Will, Julia, and Lola eventually made it on top of the wall and noticed Curtis fighting more BCTF soldiers. He knocked a few off the wall and tried his best to fight off the group of soldiers.

“Lola,” Will started, “you and Julia help Curtis.” Will turned around to look for John and sighed, “I’m gonna go look for John. He probably pushed up before us.”

“Alright!” Julia turned around to already see Lola running over to Curtis, “This girl needs to chill…”

Curtis was being held by multiple BCTF soldiers and being beaten by those not holding him. He tried to fight back, but he was severely outnumbered and fatigued.

“Hands off him!” Lola shot randomly, making them disperse. Curtis ducked down and covered his ears until Lola got close to him. He grabbed her gun and snatched it.

“The hell is your problem?” Curtis berated, “You’re gonna shoot that randomly while I was in that bunch?”

“It worked didn’t it?”

“Yeah, but you also could’ve blasted by brains out.” He shoved her rifle back into her hands and said, “Keep your aim in check and clear out the main areas of the mid-end. Get any civilians to safety while doing that. I’ll look for Brian.” Brian held out his hand and said, “Hand me the lever-rifle.”

“Alright.” Lola slowly handed him the rifle and hesitated from letting it go, “Just be safe.”

“If you don’t shoot like that again, then maybe I will.” Curtis ran off leaving Lola standing while Julia fired at BCTF soldiers.

“Might as well do what he says.” Julia commented, “It’ll make up for that reckless shit you just pulled.”

“Y-Yeah. Let’s go.”


	14. The Attack On The Mid-End Pt.2

Curtis travelled down streets of the mid-end. Dodging firefights between insurgents and BCTF soldiers in order to save himself time and ammunition. His target was the capitol building of the mid-end. A large white building similar to other capitol buildings. He knew Brian would be there heavily guarded.

Curtis stared at the building and saw only one group of BCTF soldiers standing outside. He swore under his breath and ducked back under his cover. He counted the number of soldiers after peaking out and sighed.

He scrunched his face and groaned. He looked at the device he would’ve used on the wall and looked over at the guards. Curtis smirked and laughed.

“Time for an explosive entry.”

* * *

Meanwhile nearby, Julia had fired into a BCTF soldier while Lola wrestled with one. Julia noticed this and kicked the soldier off of her. Julia stomped on their neck, killing them immediately. She helped up Lola and lightly punched her chest.

“You’re not strong enough to go toe-to-toe with them like them.” Julia shook Lola’s rifle and said, “You have a gun, use it.” Julia ran off leaving Lola on her own.

“Keep your head in the game Lola.” Lola mumbled to herself, “Gotta stay focused.” Lola psyched herself up and joined back up with Julia.

* * *

Curtis stood over the dead soldiers and shifted his glance to the building. Curtis sprinted up the steps and planted the device at the entrance. He ran off as it began beeping. After a few seconds, a massive explosion tore the building in a half revealing an underground passage.

Curtis stood and walked over confused, “Underground paths?” Curtis jumped down into the passage and looked around, “You’re uncovering more and more everyday Page.” Curtis said to himself. And with that, Curtis traversed the passage he hopped down into.

While walking through, he hid from multiple groups of BCTF soldiers that were patrolling the halls after he had blown a hole into their secret area under the capitol building. Curtis peaked out once they passed and he nodded.

He followed them and grabbed them. He snapped both of their necks with support from his shotgun and stood back up. He huffed and puffed before continuing onward. He followed more of the patrols around and took them out one by one.

He didn’t know where he was going. He had no layout of this underground area. He didn’t even know this existed. He only thought that everything was above ground. He felt as if he had gone down the same hallway several times.

* * *

Meanwhile, Jessica watched the smoke clouds rising and could only hope for Curtis’s safety. She brought her hands and began to pray for him.

“Jessica,” Sherry interrupted, “I have something that you might wanna see.”

“Hm?” Jessica turned around and walked inside to see her holding a tablet, “A tablet? I already have several tablets.”

“Yeah but,” Sherry turned the tablet around to reveal security footage of Curtis roaming the underground facility, “he’s there.”

“Curtis!” Jessica snatched the tablet and looked at Curtis roaming aimlessly, “He’s there. He’s really there.” Jessica teared up and fell onto her bed, “You can do it Curtis. I believe in you.”

* * *

Julia and Lola were in a massive firefight with BCTF soldiers. There were too many for them to properly fight back. Lola wasn’t helping much as she missed lethal shots.

“Lola,” Julia started, “go for their head!”

“I’m trying!”

“Remember how Curtis helped you!”

Lola stared at Julia and then to her rifle. She breathed heavily and popped out. She steadied her aim and leaned a little bit into her rifle. She shot at each firing BCTF and took them out quickly.

“That’s the motivation you need?” Julia wondered, “Well, it’s better than you wasting oh-so precious ammo.”

“How do you think Will is doing?”

“He went to go find John. I think he’ll be fine. His training will get him through this. It’s the Whistlers we should be worried about.” Julia turned around to see both BCTF soldiers and insurgents being mauled by Whistlers, “We gotta get the civilians here to safety.”

“But where? Nowhere is exactly safe at the moment.”

“Just somewhere not in the open.” Julia looked around and saw a church in the distance, “There. The church. Should be large enough to fit whoever makes it and should be easy to defend.”

“Alright.” Lola turned around and shouted, “Remaining Insurgents! Lead the civilians to the center church! We’ll defend there until the BCTF and Whistlers are gone!”

“Huh” Julia scoffed, “One of the perks of having her.”

* * *

Curtis traversed the underground facility until he approached the end of a hall. A single room dimly lit shined in the dark hallway. Curtis slowly trudged his way towards the room. He stepped inside, but it was a room to looked to be for holding prisoners of sort.

“It stinks in here.” Curtis covered his nose and breathed heavily through his mouth, “Whoever they kept in here must’ve gone through rough conditions. Reminds me of-.” Images flashed through his head and he stumbled backwards until his back hit something. No, not something. Someone.

“Hello again my plaything.” The voice cooed.

And like that, Curtis’s vision turned black instantly.

* * *

Meanwhile in the high-end, Jessica stopped watching the security cams. She hugged the tablet and sighed.

“I wish this tablet was him.”

“Okay, don’t get turned on while I’m here. From the looks of it,” Sherry turned her attention to the smoke rising into the sky all around the high-end and said, “the BCTF are falling at the mid-ends.”

“That sure says a lot.”

“Curtis on the other hand is somewhere in your home mid-end about to meet Brian face to face.”

“I hope he gets out safely. Brian wouldn’t let himself fight in the current state of the BCTF. He’ll more than likely pull back and focus all of his defenses here.”

“When that time comes, he’ll be strict on who enters here. You’ll be on your own then.”

“I know. That’s what I’m afraid of.” Jessica stared at the ceiling and said, “I need to be ready for whatever. Sherry, I’m glad you’ve been helping while you can.”

“Like I said, I hate that man and I would love to see him get his comeuppance. Plus, you deserve better and if you really think Curtis is the right one, then by all means. Gun for him.”

“I am!” Jessica exclaimed.

“Good.”

* * *

Julia and Lola situated everyone in the church and heard the whistlers trying to bust down the doors and windows. The civilians cowered while the insurgents were pacing around.

Julia looked around the church and was intrigued by it, “We don’t have churches in the low-ends. Seeing all of this religious stuff is kinda cool.”

“The low-end I was from had a church, but it was decommissioned. Probably because people lost faith in god or whatever people worship nowadays.”

“Now people worship Brian because he’s what keeping people alive.” Julia smirked and said, “I wonder how many of those people worship him now after today.”

“Close to none! Haha!” Lola laughed, “This is interesting though. I was never into the whole religion thing, but I understand that a lot of people worship something.”

“Yeah. People need to look at something to give them motivation for the day, but over worshipping someone is a little much.” Julia dusted some of the statues off and accidentally pushed one inward, “Uh…”

“Julia, you can’t do that. That’s disrespectful.”

“Wait a second.” Julia pushed the statue even more and noticed it caused a nearby pedestal to have a statue appear, “Whoa…”

“Uh. What is that?”

“I don’t know.” Julia walked over to the pedestal and stared at the statue that stood on top of it, “It’s…”

“Don’t touch it.” Lola pulled Julia back and said, “You don’t know what’ll happen.”

“We won’t know until we do pick it up.” Julia walked over to it while Lola covered her eyes, “Hm.” She picked it up and the ground shook a little. 2 more pedestals rose up in the middle of the altar, “Two more pedestals. They’re empty though.”

“Maybe put that statue on one of them?” Julia looked at her and Lola shrugged her shoulders, “Worth a shot.”

“I guess.” Julia placed it on top and the platform on top of the pedestal caved in. Behind them, the statue Julia pushed earlier was pulled into the ground revealing a door, “Oh I get it. We need a second statue like that to open that door.”

“But where?”

Lola looked around and walked towards the middle of the church. She heard the bells ringing and said, “What about the bell tower?”

“Up there?” Julia joined her in the middle and asked, “How do we get up there?”

“There’s a stairway that leads up.” A civilian commented. They turned to them and they said, “Sorry. I work at this church. I’m Ann Harbor. I play the organ here.”

“Oh you play?!” Lola gleefully asked, “That’s so cool.”

“How do we get to the stairway?”

“If I remember correctly, the key should be with the head priest. If not, busting it down should work just fine.”

“We don’t have time to find the head priest.” Julia groaned, “We’ll just have to bust it down.”

“The door is old and should be easy to break down.”

“Thank you so much Ann.”

“It’s no problem.” The woman stared at the ground and asked, “I heard this is all happening because Brian is scared of one man.”

“That one man is my childhood friend.” Julia replied, “He’s heading for the high-end to meet back up with Jessica.”

“Jessica?” The woman backed up and said, “That girl…”

“I’m sorry. Do you know her?”

“I do. I’m her mother.”

* * *

Curtis's eyes slowly fluttered open to see himself tied to a chair. The fierce battle going outside of where he was still rampant and it didn't seem like it was letting up. Curtis tried to break out of his binds, but to no avail.

"Don't even try." A familiar voice spoke.

Curtis paused and slowly turned his head towards the voice. Through the corner of his eye, he saw Brian walking behind him.

"You bastard..."

"Nuh-uh. That's no way to speak to someone who's showing you mercy."

"Why haven't you killed me yet? What do you gain from keeping me alive?"

"Well, you're an interesting person, Curtis." Brian walked in front of Curtis to where Curtis noticed that Brian had his shotgun slung around his back, "To the average high-ender, you're a nobody. But I know you well. She knows you well."

"Oh dear Curtis." A seductive voice called out. It was General Emma Paddock.

Curtis slightly stiffened, but quickly relaxed himself, "So what? You plan to use a past to break me?"

"Oh no. Why would I do that?" Brian chuckled as he quickly and fiercely stepped right between Curtis's pelvis, "Not even a flinch." He turned to Emma and said, "You trained him well."

"He was like that before I got to him. He's just a fearless puppy."

"I could use you Curtis. Someone as heartless as you could live the high-life with some of the most powerful people in the world."

"I don't care about that. I don't need the high-life."

"But your family would benefit well with it."

"No..."

"You'd rather let your family suffer for your own ideals? They yearn for a better life. A life where they don't have to fear for someone to murder, steal, or assault any of them 24/7."

"I'm the one that-."

"But you're not there now are you? Last I remember, I shot both you and your father. How is he doing by the way? Do you think he can defend his home while nursing a bullet wound?"

"Shut it..."

"I don't need to break you with General Paddock. I just need to attack the things you hold dear. Like your family," he leaned into his ear and whispered, "or my wife."

Curtis's eyes shot open as he squirmed in the chair in rage, "You motherfucker!" Curtis wanted to grab Brian and beat him senseless, but his binds were preventing him from doing so.

“I can see why you like him so much General Paddock. He’s very feisty.”

“What should we do now.”

“We wait for those Whistlers to finish off the insurgents. I’ll be taking my leave. You may toy with him as you like.”

“With pleasure.”

* * *

Will entered the church from a nearby window on the upstairs balcony and noticed Julia and Lola.

“Hey!” He shouted, “There’s a lot of those Whistlers outside, but they’re staring to get distracted by the BCTF. What’s the plan?”

“Get down here and we’ll break it down!” Julia shouted back. She turned her attention back to Ann and asked, “So you’re Jessica’s mother. Why are you here at the mid-end? Shouldn’t you be in the high-end with your daughter?”

“We’re not allowed.”

“What?” Lola replied in shock, “You’re her mother. Why aren’t you allowed to see her.”

“It was part of her arranged marriage.”

“Oh god no.” Julia bit her lip and groaned, “So the rumors of her being arranged to marry him was true.”

“I just had to give her a better life. Doing that was the best way to do it.”

“So she really doesn’t love Brian.” Julia mumbled, “I understand. Well, Curtis wants to do what he can to get to her and free her from that marriage.”

“No please. If you do that, Brian will punish me and my daughter.”

“What?”

“I shouldn’t even be talking to you lot right now. I’m just worried what he would do to my daughter. I’m just so worried for her.”

“We’ll save her. We’ll take that man out and you will see your daughter again. This time, she’ll be infinitely happier.”

The door to the stairway burst open and Will walked out, “Whoo…”

“Looks like we don’t have to bust it down ourselves.” Julia looked at that door and said, “We have to see what’s behind that door.”

Will looked past her and coughed, “Uh. That leads to an escape passage. It should lead us safely out of the church and into a better position to fend off the Whistlers.”

“Then let’s get that open. If we want to get rid of the BCTF and Whistlers, then we’ll have to get that door open.”

“No time to waste then!” Lola exclaimed, “The faster we move up the bell tower, the faster we’ll get these freaks out of the mid-end! Let’s go!”


End file.
